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Welcome to the Daily Stoke. For each day, we read a short passage designed to help you cultivate the strength, insight, wisdom necessary for living good life.

Each one of these passages is based on the 2000-year-old philosophy that has guided some of history's greatest men and women. For more, you can visit us at DailyStoic.com.

Do not let time surprise you.

Queen Elizabeth I was a remarkable woman. She was uncommon and special in so many ways. She was believed to have known nine languages.

She was considered one of the best educated women of her time and she presided over many English victories in battle.

And yet in one way or another, she was incredibly common, not unlike so many of us. She basically refused to think of her own mortality. Maybe she was too afraid. Maybe she thought she'd live forever.

Either way, she refused to plan for a successor in any form. She never got married despite numerous courtships. She never had children. If she had been an ordinary person, this would have been her prerogative, but she wasn't.

A queen without an heir puts the entire kingdom at risk. A ruler who doesn't consider what comes after them is bequeathing chaos and carnage on their subjects.

Sir Walter Raleigh writing late in Queen Elizabeth's life saw this happening. He saw the queen getting older and her options disappearing as she grew older and gray.

She was, he said, a lady who time has surprised. What a great phrase. Because it describes so many of us. It's the CEO who can't groom the next generation of leadership in the company.

It's the partier whose 20 have turned into their 30s and can't see how pathetic they look. It's the grandma or grandpa who shutters at the word old, whom me I'm not old.

We have to remember as Sena told us that old age and death aren't this thing that lies off in the distant future. It's a process that's happening to us always and everywhere.

We cannot let time surprise us. We must be thinking of it always. That's how we make sure we are living for today. That we are leaving nothing unfinished or unresolved.

We have a duty to ourselves and others, Sena said, to live each day like a complete life, to keep our affairs in order because we have no idea what's going to happen or how much time we will be given.

Don't delay. Don't deny. Don't be surprised. Do your duty. Face your fears and your mortality today and always.

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