Ryan Holiday

Stop sleepwalking.

Stop giving away what you can never give back.

That's from his essay, The Shortness of Life, where he tries to get the reader, as Bruce Springsteen does in his best songs, to realize that you are dying before your time.

We only get one life.

Once time ticks by, it never comes back.

Yes, each of us will die.

That's a fact.

But for the moment we are alive, which is why we have to live, which is why we have to protect our time, our dreams, and our spirit.

We can't give it up piece by piece.

We can't start dying before our time.

We have to live now while we still can.

When it comes to family, we have to be kind.

Marcus Aurelius' stepbrother Lucius Verus was hardly a great man.

Unlike Marcus, he was not as driven or as smart.

We hear that he liked to party.

He was not always so diligent in his responsibilities.

But still, Marcus Aurelius loved his stepbrother and not only found a role for him leading the troops, but celebrated his accomplishments, sometimes at the expense of his own.

Would he have treated his other generals so generously?

It's doubtful.

In Rome, it was said that not all men could be Cato's, and that included Cato's brother.