The Inner Citadel



> *"Let death and exile, and all other things which appear terrible be daily before your eyes, but chiefly death, and you will never entertain any abject thought, nor too eagerly covet anything."*
> — Epictetus, *Enchiridion* 21 (Elizabeth Carter)

## Micro-Lesson
*Memento mori* — remember that you must die — is not morbidity. It is the ultimate de-frictioner. Every petty grievance, every procrastination, every vanity shrinks in the light of the one fact you keep trying not to look at: that you have a deadline, and it is unknown. The Stoics kept a skull on the desk not to be grim but to be **precise**. Today you look at it.

## Exercise (15 min)
Write, in one paragraph, what you would want to be true of your life if today were your last day. Then write: *"Since it may not be, what would I do today to make it more likely?"* Do one of those things.

## Journal Prompt
If I genuinely believed I might die this year, what would I stop doing today — and what would I start?