"Expecting is the greatest impediment to living. In anticipation of tomorrow, it loses today"

Seneca the Younger draws attention to a deeply human habit: the tendency to look forward, to anticipate the future, sometimes at the expense of fully experiencing the present. To expect is to live mentally in a world of projections, hopes, and fears about what might come. Such anticipation can become such a powerful focus that it overshadows the moments actually unfolding before us. The act of expecting transforms today, a time alive with possibilities, into little more than a waiting room for tomorrow.

When one is constantly preoccupied by what is yet to come, present opportunities for joy, connection, or understanding may slip by unobserved. Life is rendered into a succession of not-quite-real moments, mere precursors to some imagined better time just on the horizon. This habit fragments our experiences, creating a state where satisfaction and vitality are always deferred. In doing so, constant anticipation becomes an obstacle, standing between ourselves and the richness possible in each day.

Seneca suggests that, paradoxically, a life spent waiting is a life not lived. More than a matter of lost hours, this is a loss in the quality and depth of our engagement with the world. If tomorrow always claims our attention, today is diminished and sacrificed, in the hope that fulfillment lies just ahead. Yet, once tomorrow arrives, the cycle often repeats: we find ourselves still waiting, still expecting.

Seneca’s perspective is a call to attention and presence. Instead of letting our lives be defined by what we hope or fear might happen, we are encouraged to value and experience what is now. To fully live, one must loosen the grip of expectation, not to reject planning or hope altogether, but to avoid being so consumed by anticipation that we forfeit the richness of the present.