“You get what you deserve. Instead of being a good person today, you choose instead to become one tomorrow.”
MARCUS AURELIUS, MEDITATIONS, 8.22
“I don’t complain about the lack of time… what little I have will go far enough. Today — this day — will achieve what no tomorrow will fail to speak about. I will lay siege to the gods and shake up the world.”
SENECA, MEDEA, 423-425
We always say we’re going to start tomorrow. We put our moment of truth in the future. “I’ll begin my workout regimen tomorrow,” we say, “today will be my last day of laziness.”
But why wait for tomorrow? What if you quit screwing around and just got started today? If it’s important enough, and you know it’s the right thing to do, then you should begin it immediately. That’s the point made in today’s chapter of The Daily Stoic.
You don’t need to wait for the perfect conditions — that will never happen. Just take immediate, imperfect action. Get it done, right now.
I love the end of the second quote above from Seneca. We must be that bold. We must be that fired up and determined to take agency over our lives. We must lay siege to the gods, and shake up the world. Nothing less is acceptable, nothing else will do.
