Meaning of “The greatest hindrance to living is expectancy, which…”

Mortality is used to challenge postponement: limited time makes present conduct more important than fantasies of an indefinitely extended future.

Seneca argues against postponing life into an imagined future and asks the reader to treat the present day as complete enough for deliberate living.

Time often disappears without a dramatic signal, which makes ordinary attention more important than waiting for a crisis to announce that life is passing.

The present cannot be stored; its brevity is exactly why deliberate attention matters.

Attention cannot make time stop; its value lies in actually inhabiting a passing day rather than assuming it can be preserved for later.

Change is treated as the condition of the world, while our experience of life is shaped by judgment.