Seneca Tells us about Happiness

 

So each day this year I'll be taking a quote from Seneca and responding to it briefly. The intent is to bring you his thought, directly from his writings, and then see how it applies to our lives today. I'm excited to say that it's usually not difficult at all to see how his words apply to our lives, both business lives and personal.

Here is today's quote: "All men, brother Gallio, wish to live happily, but are dull at perceiving exactly what it is that makes life happy. And so far is it from being easy to attain to happiness that the more eagerly a man struggles to reach it, the further he departs from it, if he takes the wrong road. For, since this leads in the opposite direction, his very swiftness carries him all the further away."

So much to unpack in those few short sentences! First, if you jump on any social media today, you find that the first sentence is just as true today as it was 2000 years ago when he wrote it. Everyone is trying to be happy, and most people choose the wrong road to attain it, carrying them swiftly off in the wrong direction. The wisest and wealthiest people who have ever lived will tell you in no uncertain terms that money doesn't buy happiness - that is, being wealthy won't make you happy. Yet this is the lesson that human beings ABSOLUTELY refuse to learn the easy way, and insist on learning the hard way. The easy way is learning from other people's mistakes and pain, and the hard way is learning from your own.

And you see people today dive into sex, drugs, chasing money, chasing fame, desperately trying to find the happiness that Seneca refers to. And the faster they chase those drugs, sex, money, and fame, the faster it takes them further and further from the happiness they seek.

I'm not going to jump ahead and give spoilers as to what DOES give us happiness. Let's take this one step at a time. Today, let's agree with Seneca, that happiness is something we all seek, and most of us run off in the wrong direction as we seek it, going faster and faster in the wrong direction.

See you tomorrow!