There's a quiet tyranny in the way we think about time. We treat time like a resource we're perpetually running out of; we're behind on the project, or work emails, or our reading list, or, and this is a big one, behind on becoming the person we said we'd be by now.

But Marcus would remind us that "behind" is an illusion because we can't lose time we never had. The past is gone, and the future doesn't exist yet… so the only moment we actually possess is the one we’re occupying right now.

When we catch ourselves spiralling over everything we haven't done, the Stoics would urge us to pause and ask: what is in front of me right now? Ignore yesterday's pile of undone things, and stop fretting tomorrow's todo list — what about right now?

Marcus goes even further, saying that whether we live to be a hundred years old or we die young, the only thing we ever actually part with is the present instant… that's all any of us ever have. The longest and shortest lives share at least one feature: they are lived moment by moment; in the moment and nowhere else.

The idea that we can't be behind if the only place we can exist is right now, is rather comforting.

Most of us spend our Fridays already thinking about Monday; we're mentally drafting next week’s outcomes before this week has even wrapped up. Finish this week first! Be where you are now, first! Tomorrow, and its moments, will arrive on its own schedule regardless and you can live it then.

Thanks for reading, and have a great weekend.