Seneca About Daring and Procrastination

"It's not because it's difficult that we don't dare, it's because we don't dare that it's difficult. "

Lucius Annaeus Seneca

According to Seneca, we often think about problems so much that they seem more and more problematic in our minds. However, when we start to tackle something, it usually becomes clear that it can be done and that the fear of the situation was not justified.

Seneca was a naturalist, politician and a Roman philosopher. He lived in the first century AD and belonged to the school of Stoics. He is one of the most widely read writers of his time.

Who doesn't know it: you have something to do but thanks to procrastination we put it off and on.
The longer we don't face the problem, the bigger it becomes.

Let's take writing a job application or cleaning your room as an example. At the beginning, it would be relatively easy.

You take an hour to sit down and write the application, or clean up your room. But you prefer to do it later, and so an activity that should take no longer than a day turns into something you put off for several days, possibly even weeks.

After some time, the application deadline approaches and you think to yourself that the company has probably already found someone for the position anyway. After two weeks, the room is also in a much worse state than it was when you decided to clean it up.

As we can see, the things we don't dare to do become more difficult.

As in the first example with the application, the problem in our head becomes bigger. We stress ourselves more and more the longer we put things off. The more things we have in our head, the higher our stress level.

In other words, the more things we put off, the more thoughts we have to have in our heads about what we still have to do.

There is also another point. Situations actually become more complicated and difficult to solve. Like in the second example with cleaning the room. There are tasks that become more complex by themselves the longer we put them off.

In other words, we give the situation too much space and time in which to:

First: Waste thoughts on the situation without changing anything about it

Second: The situation gets time to deteriorate all by itself

Nothing ventured, nothing gained is a common saying. Personally, I think that Seneca's quote perfectly complements this proverb, because he who does not dare only makes life harder and more troublesome than necessary.

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