The room was quiet.

Thick stone walls muffled the sounds of the city outside—Athens, alive and ignorant to the fact that one of its greatest minds was about to die.

Inside the cell, it was dim. The last rays of the sun slanted through the iron-barred window, cutting dusty shafts of light across the floor. A small group of friends sat close, their faces drawn and silent, watching a man in his seventies prepare to drink poison.

Socrates.

Barefoot. Calm.
No panic in his eyes. No tremble in his voice.

Just the same man they’d known all along.
Asking questions. Challenging thoughts. Offering clarity right up to the end.

He wasn’t pacing. He wasn’t crying.
He was discussing philosophy.

Moments before he was to die, Socrates was still teaching. Still living his values. Still living fully.

Then the jailer returned, carrying the cup. A thick, bitter poison—hemlock.
Socrates took it in his hands, thanked the man, and drank.

No hesitation. No drama.
Just conviction.

He lay down and waited. And as his body began to shut down, he spoke his final words to a friend:
​"Crito, we owe a cock to Asclepius. Please don’t forget to pay the debt."

Even in death, he tied up loose ends.

Now here’s what hits hardest:
He had every excuse to lose it. To rage. To curse the gods, the state, the system.

But he didn’t.
Because Socrates wasn’t concerned with how he would die.
He was concerned with how he lived.

With being the kind of man who walked his talk—even when it meant dying for it.

Compare that to how we act today.
We spiral over emails.
We chase validation.
We numb ourselves with distraction.
We waste time like it’s unlimited.

Socrates had every reason to panic.
We have none—and still do.

His story isn’t just ancient history—it’s a gut-check.
Because one day, you’ll face the end too.
And you’ll have to ask:

Did I live how I was meant to live?​
​Did I stand by my values, even when it was uncomfortable?​
​Did I waste my days or make them count?

You don’t need to be Socrates.
But you can live with the kind of clarity and courage he showed in his final breath.

You can live so well that even death doesn’t scare you.

Reflection: If your time was running out, what would you change today?
What would you finally stop putting off?

Hit reply—I’d love to hear what this stirred in you.
And if someone in your life needs this reminder, send it to them. Their time’s ticking too.

Until next time,

Broden Johnson