Setting Intentions
This week's concept is Setting Intentions, and the Stoics had a precise practice for it. Before acting, they would pause and decide, clearly and deliberately, what kind of person they were going to be and what kind of work they were going to do. This isn't motivational self-talk; it's a practical discipline for closing the gap between who you are and who you want to be. The week's theme, Morning Preparation, gives you a natural moment each day to do exactly that: before the world rushes in, you decide how you will meet it.
Passage
Thus Pacuvius had himself carried out to burial every day. Let us, however, do from a good motive what he used to do from a debased motive; let us go to our sleep with joy and gladness; let us say: I have lived; the course which Fortune set for me Is finished. And if God is pleased to add another day, we should welcome it with glad hearts. That man is happiest, and is secure in his own possession of himself, who can await the morrow without apprehension. When a man has said: “I have lived!”, every morning he arises he receives a bonus.
— Seneca, Letters 12.9
Reflection
Seneca introduces what the Stoics called the evening meditation on death, not as morbidity but as clarity. The practice is to close each day as though it were complete, full and finished, so that the next morning you begin from gratitude rather than anxiety. This reframes the whole idea of setting intentions: you are not trying to fix a broken life; you are choosing how to spend the days you are being given. Each morning that you wake and set an intention, you are receiving, as Seneca says, a bonus.
Go deeper
If you treated tomorrow morning as a genuine gift rather than a continuation of your obligations, what intention would you set for it that you have been postponing?
Practice
The Evening Close
Tonight, before sleep, say or write: 'I have lived today.' Then name one thing you actually did today that was in keeping with your intentions for the week. Make it specific. This is not self-congratulation; it is completing the loop between intention and action before the day closes.