Around 63 AD to 65 AD, towards the end of his life, Seneca wrote over a hundred letters to his friend Lucilius about living and how to be a better stoic.
In one of his first letters, he wrote:
“Nothing, to my way of thinking, is better proof of a well ordered mind than a man’s ability to stop just where he is and pass time in his own company […] To be everywhere is to be nowhere.”
This is something I go back to quite often. To be everywhere is to be nowhere. I first read this line about two years ago, and I still remember how hard it hit me then. To be everywhere is to be nowhere. Just writing this line over and over again forces me to stop, breathe, and notice where I am.
I’m in my room, but am I also somewhere else?
It’s funny how something someone wrote in latin literally two thousand years ago can resonate greatly with virtually every stage of a life.
This is me being everywhere during crucial periods of mine:
High school – joining virtually every extra-curricular activity I could fit into my schedule, while still wanting to be with friends and family during my free hours.
College – saying yes to too many things at once, usually more than I can healthily handle, afraid that I’ll miss out on the experience.
After graduation – wanting to accomplish so many things at the same time. Read all the books. Listen to all the podcasts. Write every single day. Be everything, now.
During the pandemic – forcing myself to be everywhere all at once, moving from call to call, meeting to meeting, app to app, chat to chat. Everything instant.
At every stage so far, I would’ve probably benefited from following Seneca’s advice.
Although, this is not to say that we should be doing less things or limiting our experiences. Had I been told this piece of advice then, would it have changed the way I lived those years? I doubt it. I would’ve yearned for the same breadth of experience. But, maybe I would’ve been more thoughtful about how I spent my time.
I guess what Seneca tries to remind us is to go deep.
When you’re here, be fully here. And when you’d rather be somewhere else, go be fully somewhere else. Be a full yes to a few valuable things, not fractions of a yes to many.
Of course, it would take some trial and error to sift through the many, not unlike how most simple things need to be complicated first. But when you can, be somewhere.