A Life Lesson You Must Learn To Build a Remarkable Life

You have observed your mind being haunted by one question: If I focus my time cultivating my intellectual curiosities, acquiring valuable skills, and raising my standards, who do I become?

Do You Have Enough Time

Seneca, the Younger, writes to Paulinus, "It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a lot of it. Life is long enough, and a sufficiently generous amount has been given to us for the highest achievements if it were all well invested. But when it is wasted in heedless luxury and spent on no good activity, we are forced at last by death's final constraint to realize that it has passed away before we knew it was passing."

While life is long enough, the time you have left is unknown. Therefore, the quality of your life is measured by how you use your time, which is divided into two camps:

• Always be learning.
• Stop learning.

Always Be Learning

You should never settle for being the same version year after year. That is surviving. Your life's mission is to become the best version of you, year after year.

Robert Greene writes, "In childhood, this force was clear to you. It directed you toward activities and subjects that fit your natural inclinations, that sparked a curiosity that was deep and primal."

Your childhood curiosities did not disappear. Their voices have been muted by your cultural script.

Schedule the time and create a list of 20 curiosity items to reconnect with those activities and subjects.

You must be as specific as possible. You do not want to write down the following:

• I want to learn about space and human evolution.

Instead, turn the bland statement into an inspiring question:

• How will space travel impact human evolution as humanity becomes a spacefaring species? Is there a potential for the creation of a new human species?

Now that you have crafted an inspiring question, what is next? You need to get working on exploring the question:

• Read books, articles, and research papers
• Speak with experts
• Watch documentaries
• Watch TED or TEDx

As you pursue the question, it will lend itself to picking up a few new skills:

• If you want to communicate your ideas on paper -- you must learn how to write well.
• If you want to communicate your ideas verbally -- you need to learn public speaking.
• If you want to understand how evolution works -- you must read books not just on evolution but on how the mind works, how culture influences ambition, and how the hostility of space will limit travel.

Stop Learning

Simple -- live in fear and follow the herd.

At the end of the day, the choice is yours on how you want to live out the time you have left. But one day, you're going to die.

No one will remember you in a generation or two -- so why not live a life focused on cultivating your intellectual curiosities, acquiring valuable skills, and raising your standards.

Who you become might be unrecognizable from who you were.