“Being unexpected adds to the weight of a disaster, and being a surprise has never failed to increase a person’s pain. For that reason, nothing should ever be unexpected by us. Our minds should be sent out in advance to all things and we shouldn’t just consider the normal course of things, but what could actually happen. For is there anything in life that Fortune won’t knock off its high horse if it pleases her?”
SENECA, MORAL LETTERS, 91.3a-4
Bad luck can happen to any of us. Events will come along that bring negative outcomes for us, and we should be prepared for that. We shouldn’t be caught off guard by misfortune. That’s the focus of today’s chapter in The Daily Stoic.
When misfortune happens, it can catch us unawares. By nature, it’s often unexpected because we’ve been fooled by our relative good fortune up to that point. And that, as Seneca points out, only adds to the “weight of a disaster”, and increases our pain.
To counter this, we have to expect that undesired events will find us at some point in our lives, and we have to prepare for that eventuality. We should consider “the normal course of things” and prepare ourselves for what possibilities could realistically arise.
How? We can start by getting used to having less in our lives — because that day could certainly come.
We can also steel our minds against misfortune by preparing for the worst when times are good. It’s not always the most fun exercise to do, but it is valuable training for the mind, and it helps make the hard times more bearable.
Balance is key
It’s at this point that I feel compelled to mention that balance is important here. In our zeal to prepare for bad luck, we mustn’t get lost in it or dwell too much on it.
After all, one of the core tenets of stoicism is to concern yourself only with things you can control, and misfortune isn’t generally something we can control. (If it was, we wouldn’t have any.)
Likewise, you don’t want to put a down payment on misery by obsessing about the worst-case scenario. That’s not healthy for your soul and doesn’t really do you any favors. And that’s not the point here anyway.
The point is to not get caught off guard, and prepare your soul & mind for misfortune — but not overthinking it, and remembering to focus on what you can control.
