A Stoic practice
What is premeditatio malorum?
Premeditatio malorum is the Stoic practice of calmly rehearsing what could go wrong before it does. You picture the loss, the setback, or the ending clearly enough to meet it without shock. The aim is not anxiety but preparation: nothing befalls the wise man that he did not expect.
Where it comes from
Seneca describes the discipline throughout the Dialogues, and states its logic exactly: nothing befalls the wise man which he did not expect. He is careful about what this does and does not buy — it does not make you exempt from the chances of human life, only from its surprises. Epictetus practises the same move in the Enchiridion, where he tells you to remind yourself of the nature of what you love: if you kiss your child, that you kiss a being subject to the accidents of humanity.
How to do it
- 01Take one thing you are counting on, and hold it in view for a minute — the trip, the result, the person's health.
- 02Picture it not happening. Not luridly; plainly. Say what you would actually do the next morning.
- 03Notice that you would go on. That is the whole finding, and it is the one worth having.
- 04Return to the day and act exactly as you were going to. The rehearsal changes what would break you, not what you do.
How it goes wrong
This is not worry with a Latin name. Worry loops and resolves nothing; the rehearsal is finite, concrete, and ends with you closing the loop. If you finish more agitated than you began, you were worrying.
The idea behind it
The dichotomy of control is the Stoic distinction between what is up to us and what is not. Epictetus placed it first in the Enchiridion: our judgments, desires, and actions are in our power; our bodies, reputations, property, and outcomes are not. Wisdom is spending yourself only on the first.
What is the Stoic dichotomy of control?The book on it: In Your Control