Seneca: 5 Secrets That Will Keep You Going When the Going Gets Rough
Stoics lived a thousand lives, and we struggle to live even “one.”
Every Stoic stood the test of trials:
- Seneca: exiled and had death threats
- Marcus Aurelius: Antonine plague
- Epictetus: born as an enslaved person, banished, never wrote anything
Though Seneca was intelligent, he couldn’t predict the intentions of others toward him. Historians label it as “innocence.”
Nero, his student, and Caligula, the emperor, were jealous of Seneca’s intelligence and tried to execute him. Seneca’s life wasn’t a bed of roses, but he kept going.
Seneca did not adopt a Nihilistic attitude towards life — he advocated for embracing life experiences and persisting through challenges. For Seneca, life is difficult, but stopping and quitting secures nothing. As the old saying goes:
“If your life is hell, why do you want to stay in the same spot?”
Forget the uncontrollable subjects such as hiking prices of fuels, inflation, and family crises, and focus on what you can control. Rather than being called a victim, Seneca wanted to be called the “intelligent one,” and that’s how he revised his life.
