Mastery: Prepare For The Worst; Work Towards The Best

Issue No. 47 | November 20th, 2023 | Read Time: 2 Minutes

Sh*t happens.

Plans change. People go back on their word. The economy shifts. You make mistakes. 

No matter how hard you try, life is going to hit you with a lot of different curveballs.

And for the average person, all it takes is one catastrophic event to throw them off course and make them quit. 

But what about the people who push past it?

It's not about mental discipline or perseverance—as important as those are—it's about preparation.

In other words, the people who succeed the most are the ones who plan for failure.

They plan on making mistakes.

They plan on people going back on their word.

And what do they do? They plan around it. 

They make accommodations and make the conscious decision ahead of time that whatever curveball gets thrown at them, they'll simply work their way around it.

Funnily enough, the ancient Stoics actually practiced this strategy of "planning ahead" called

premeditation of adversity

.

It's the concept of imagining the worst-case scenario that could possibly happen and maintaining that image long enough to naturally bring down your anxiety about it. 

As you become more accustomed to whatever

could

happen, you thereby prepare yourself for whenever it

does

.

But that doesn't mean you can't imagine the best outcome possible. You're simply planning on difficult obstacles, not a catastrophic ending. 

Because success isn't a straight line. There are a million ways to get to where you're going. And the more you prepare for each path, the more likely you'll reach the finish line.

And doing this doesn't make you a pessimistic person. Being pessimistic means only believing in the negative in life and not having the mental fortitude to do anything about it.

Premeditation to adversity is the act of imagining the worst, becoming familiar with it, accepting it, and then doing your best to plan through it.

It's your job to make sure you see yourself to the very end.

So start planning for the worst, but always stay aiming for the best.

Until next time,

Isaiah Taylor

Dive Deeper

What I'm Currently Reading -

I'm still reading

How To Think Like A Roman Emperor

by Donald Robertson. A wonderfully written book on the fundamentals of Stoic philosophy and the mindset of Marcus Aurelius. 

• If you'd like to see my book notes pertaining to this book or any others I have previously read, then check out my websiteisaiahctaylor.comto view my entire library of notes and summaries.

Quote Of The Week

• "It is not events that disturb people, it is their judgments concerning them." — Epictetus