Life’s Essential Lessons in a Few Simple Words

In our ever modernised world it can be increasingly difficult to find moments of profound insight. We are bombarded with tech screens, cars, exercise routines and a high productivity driven workplace, and so it’s not surprising that our weeks turn into months and all of a sudden we wonder how our life is passing us by and our grounding has been lost.

There is no harm of course, in living a life to its fullest, to embracing technology for all that it can offer us, and to take care of the precious bodies we have been gifted with. But, it is important to take regular stock of by which values we have been living this thing called life by. How have we approached those we encounter? How have we treated ourselves? How can we constantly improve upon the person that we are and the legacy that we leave?

Recently we came across an interesting article on The Art of Manliness called 21 Epigrams Every Man Should Live By. This was a guest article by Ryan Holiday and it gave us a moment to pause, reflect, and smile.

Holiday had selected his 21 favourite epigrams of all time, spanning 21 centuries and 3 continents. And according to him, each one will fundamentally teach you “how to be a better man”. If you choose to follow them.

We wanted to give you the same opportunity to take a moment of pause in the midst of a busy life, and so we have distilled Holiday’s selection into just 5 epigrams for you to reflect on when you get a moment to yourself.

Use them as a chance to re-calibrate and briefly re-evaluate the ways in which you have been conducting yourself today. Have you been your best possible self? Or is there room for improvement?

It is futile to project strict standards on others or assume that you understand completely the intention behind someone’s actions. We have no idea what other people are going through or have been through. And so remember to give people the benefit of the doubt, look for the good, assume the good, and let that good inspire your actions.

Missed opportunities can never be regained. We can never go back in time, therefore we must work towards not finding ourselves on our deathbeds regretting what could have been. Embrace the now. Now!

Epictetus believed that we don’t control what happens to us, all we control are our thoughts and reactions to what happens to us. Life is not about good or bad luck, it is instead influenced by how we react the strokes of fortune that we do receive.

There is no good or bad without us, there is only perception. There is the event itself and the story we tell ourselves about what it means. Remember this when you catch yourself dwelling in negativity.

Which will you choose? Live as you have never lived before: wear out, don’t rust out.

What epigrams do you live by?