It's sitting there, unopened in your inbox. It's there on your callsheet to return. It's on your to-do list to look at those numbers.
And it's going to keep sitting there, because you refuse to look at it. You put it off. You procrastinate. You tell yourself, as Seneca says that all fools do, that you're just not ready to start yet. You could do it today, as Marcus Aurelius says, but yet again you choose tomorrow.
Why?
It's not going to be any easier later. It also might not be that difficult right now. That's the funny thing you find about the stuff you put off—when you finally get around to it, you realize you've been dreading something that was actually pretty simple, that only took a few minutes. Sometimes you find the email you didn't want to open turns out to contain nothing at all, just the other person telling you that they need some more time to think it over and that they'll 'get back to you.'
What Stoicism trains us to do is to have the willpower to bite the bullet—to 1,2,3,4,5 jump—to do the thing that some part of us doesn't want to do. By training ourselves—from cold plunges and lifting heavy things to having the tough conversation and starting the project we've been dreading—we are building an override switch that allows us to push through resistance, excuses and our lazier impulses. It helps us become the person who does the thing now and not later.
Now is for certain. Later is a lie. It's only going to get harder the longer you wait.
Stop putting it off. Do what you need to do.
P.S. We've spoken a lot about how to train yourself with the ideas of Stoicism by reading, rereading, and practicing them in your life. Here at Daily Stoic, we have all the tools you'll need to firmly establish these teachings in your mind—so that you can call on Stoicism when you need it most.
Each day, you'll be reminded of these powerful virtues and learn how to apply them to improve your life.
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