Tactical Psychology

“How many have laid waste to your life when you weren’t aware of what you were losing, how much was wasted in pointless grief, foolish joy, greedy desire, and social amusements, how little of your own was left to you. You will realize you are dying before your time!” -SENECA, ON THE BREVITY OF LIFE, 3.36

One of the hardest things to do in life is to say “No.” To invitations, to requests, to obligations, to the stuff that everyone else is doing.

Even harder is saying no to certain time consuming emotions: anger, excitement, distraction, obsession, lust. None of these impulses feels like a big deal by itself, but run amok, they become a commitment like anything else.

If you’re not careful, these are precisely the impositions that will overwhelm and consume your life. Do you ever wonder how you can get some of your time back, how you can feel less busy?

Start by learning the power of “No!” – as in “No, thank you, and “No, I’m not going to get caught up in that,” and “No, I just can’t right now.” It may hurt some feelings. It may turn people off. It may take some hard work. But the more you say no to the things that don’t matter, the more you can say yes to the things that do. This will let you live and enjoy your life the life that you want.

No person would give up even an inch of their estate, and the slightest dispute with a neighbor can mean hell to pay, yet we easily let others encroach on our lives worse, we often pave the way for those who will take it over. No person hands out their money to passers by, but to how many do each of us hand out our lives!

We’re tight fisted with property and money, yet think too little of wasting time, the one thing about which we should all be the

toughest misers.

Property can be regained, money can be re-earned. Time? Time is our most irreplaceable asset—we cannot buy more of it. We cannot get a second of it back. We can only hope to waste as little as possible. Yet somehow we treat it as the most renewable of all resources.

You can only hand so many hours of your day over to other people before there is none left.

Even if there are some left, you may have lost the clarity, the energy and the capacity to do anything with them. So, next time someone is asking for just a little of your time, or you feel the pressures of minor social obligations, or the temptations of potential financial gain remind yourself of this advice. SAY FUCKING NO.

But always say YES to coffee 😉

Love from

Lee ❤️