Practice like a Stoic: 6, Premeditation of future adversity

Consider what could go wrong and be ready to tackle it

Pseudo-Seneca, Louvre Museum, photo by the Author.

[This series of posts is based on A Handbook for New Stoics—How to Thrive in a World out of Your Control, co-authored by yours truly and Greg Lopez. It is a collection of 52 exercises, which we propose reader try out one per week during a whole year, to actually live like a Stoic. In Europe/UK the book is published by Rider under the title Live Like A Stoic. Below is this week’s prompt and a brief explanation of the pertinent philosophical background. Check the book for details on how to practice the exercise, download the exercise forms from The Experiment’s website, and comment below on how things are going. Greg and/or I will try our best to help out! This week’s exercise is found at pp. 44-52 of the paperback edition.]

"If an evil has been pondered beforehand, the blow is gentle when it comes. To the fool, however, and to him who trusts in fortune, each event as it arrives ‘comes in a new and sudden form,’ and a large part of evil, to the inexperienced, consists in its novelty. This is proved by the fact that men endure with greater courage, when they have once become accustomed to them, the things which they had at first regarded as hardships. Hence, the wise man accustoms himself to coming trouble, lightening by long reflection the evils which others lighten by long endurance. We sometimes hear the inexperienced say: ‘I knew that this was in store for me.’ But the wise man knows that all things are in store for him. Whatever happens, he says: ‘I knew it.’” (Seneca, Letters to Lucilius, 76.34–35)

Some modern Stoics refer to this exercise by the Latin term premeditatio malorum, the premeditation of bad stuff happening. It’s not that Stoics are pessimists; on the contrary, they are among the most realistic of people—they know that sometimes things won’t go their way, and are always mentally prepared for that occurrence.

Of course, having a prepared mind is not like having a magic wand; no matter how prepared James is, there will still be traffic, and he will likely miss the interview. But there are two additional aspects of his unpreparedness that make a difference. First, once it’s inevitable that, say, you will be late and miss a job interview, thereby forfeiting the job, it becomes what the Stoics would call dispreferred, or something we’d rather not do or happen. Getting upset at this point won’t solve anything, but it is guaranteed to make you more miserable by adding a self-inflicted injury to one imposed from the outside. Second, suppose you decide not to call the interviewer to alert him of the problem, because you were just too upset about your circumstance. This is a hallmark of what Stoics call a passion—it clouds your mind, stopping you from doing or thinking what is reasonable. (Not all emotions are passions, only the ones that take over your mind.) Had you been able to embrace the situation with equanimity, you may have realized that you had nothing to lose by calling the interviewer. The decision to call ahead or not was under your control; however, because of your distress, you could not bring yourself to act in your own best interest.

The Stoic philosopher Chrysippus of Soli, the third head of the ancient Stoa (as the Stoic school was called) came up with a good metaphor for dispreferred situations, and, really, for life in general. Imagine a dog that is tied to a cart by way of a leash. The dog is minding his own business, maybe playfully barking at another dog nearby, just for fun. All of a sudden, the cart starts moving. The dog would rather stay a bit longer and keep barking at the other guy, but he has no choice. The leash makes sure that he will have to follow the cart. At this point, the dog could do one of two things: He could take note of the situation, accept what he cannot control, and gingerly start to follow the cart, maybe even hoping that he will meet other dogs down the road. Or, he could get upset, drag himself on the pavement, and try to resist the cart. Which do you think would be the wiser course of action?

As the dog and the cart, so we and the universe. Things will happen that will make it impossible for us to do what we intend to do. We can either approach the unwanted situation with equanimity and do the best we can given the circumstances, or we can drag ourselves kicking and screaming. The end result will be the same, but we can spare ourselves a hell of a lot of suffering.