Pleasant are the completed works - Cicero about procrastination

When I have a completely scheduled day ahead of me, I'm often unmotivated to start the tasks. However, when I go to bed in the evening and have done everything, it feels liberating and pleasant. Cicero already knew this 2000 years ago.

Marcus Tullius Cicero was a Roman scholar. He was a philosopher, lawyer, and writer. He also thwarted an attempted coup by Lucius Sergius Catilina, which is why he was given the honorary title of "Father of the Fatherland".

"Pleasant is the work done."

Marcus Tullius Cicero

Often, when we learn of a task or accomplishment, it drags our lows down. After all, we have to do the task whether we want to or not. It is also very rarely helpful to put off the task forever, because most of the time no one else will take over our tasks.

In one of my older posts, I once wrote a quote from Seneca: "It's not because it's difficult that we don't dare, it's because we don't dare that it's difficult." In this post, I explained that the longer we avoid doing something, the greater the fear of even starting. Furthermore, if you never start, you can't have the pleasant feeling of completing an activity.

The longer we don't take care of what we have to do, the more it haunts our minds. The more such thoughts are in our head, the more we stress our mental capacities. However, this quote is not so much about the stress we get when we don't get our work done, but about the satisfying feeling you get when you get the work done.

Anyone who has ever cleaned the kitchen or the bathroom, anyone who has ever mowed the lawn or made an unpleasant phone call knows how satisfying it is when you get it over with. How pleasant it feels to have done something that you had less desire to do. This pleasant feeling of having done something you didn't feel like doing is much more pleasant than the stress you feel when you endlessly postpone tasks.

So the next time you are faced with a job, task, or accomplishment, try not to get involved in procrastinating about getting it done. Think of the pleasant feeling you will have after you have done the work.

---

Did you like this article? You can let us inform you about new articles:

---