The life of the Ancient Roman writer
Titus Livius (59 BC-17 AD) provides a good illustration of the relationship between personal happiness and having rational long-term goals.
The key to happiness according to Titus Livius
When Titus Livius turned thirty-five, he looked back at his life and
realized that he had not accomplished much. Like many Romans of good
family, he had enjoyed a solid education, read widely, done some
travelling, and also a little writing.
He had tried his hand
intermittently at everything and achieved pretty much nothing. Since his
life lacked purpose and ambition, Titus Livius felt ineffective and
unhappy. He asked himself if he should continue living in the same way.
Was there something that he could do to give meaning to his days?
The
prevalent philosophies in Ancient Rome, stoicism and hedonism, did not
provide an answer to his questions. Hedonism encourages man to live for
the pleasures of the day and ignore long-term consequences. Stoicism
seldom provides other contentment than the quiet acceptance of
misfortune. Those two ethical theories often lead to stress, anxiety, and depression.
Reject ethical theories that lead to stress, anxiety, and depression
We do not know what made Titus Livius change his
ways, but we do know the results. Instead of continuing to pursue random
interests, he conceived a wide-ranging project that would take him
decades to accomplish. Instead of wasting time in abstract speculation,
he fixed himself an ambitious goal and figured out how to accomplish it.
By
the time he turned thirty-six, he had already formulated how he was
going to spend the rest of his life. He would write a History of Rome
unlike anything ever written before. He would speak not only of facts,
but also of heroes. He would recount not only events, but also the
values that had inspired them.
Titus Livius' plan comprised
researching hundreds of documents and writing 150 books, an enterprise
that nowadays would keep busy a complete university department. He did
most of the work himself and it took him four decades.
The proven way to accelerate your personal growth and increase your effectiveness
Apparently,
he was very happy devoting his time to such a demanding undertaking.
Such devotion to a single long-term purpose is essential to improve a
man's personal effectiveness and psychological well-being.
When
Titus Livius died, he was 77 years old. His only regret must have been
that he had not started his project earlier, since he only managed to
complete 142 books out of the 150 that he had initially planned.
Do
you have similar objectives and plans in your life? Have you
established long-term goals for yourself? Do you have a strategy that
consistently favours your personal growth? Are you becoming more
effective at what you do day after day?
Text: http://johnvespasian.blogspot.com
Image by iowa_spirit-walker under Creative Commons Attribution License. See the license terms under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/us