“We are more often frightened than hurt; and we suffer more from imagination than from reality”, Seneca noted. Stoic philosophy reminds us that the way we experience a situation is not only the reflection of the events. It is also linked to what we imagine could happen. Yet, if our fears do not always turn true, the simple fact of having imagined them has an immediate price, under the form of anxiety, stress or even paralysis.

This book invites us to become aware of this bias, and to exercise extra vigilance when the future is uncertain or when we do not control the situation. It is then time to take a break, even to talk with a person who will know how to maintain some distance, such as a coach or a friend external to this anxiety-generating context: what is the probability that the worst-case scenario, on which your fears are focused, actually happens? What is the part of delusion stemming from a projection of your fears? What do you have control over, here and now, and what should you focus on to draw some gain?

A proven approach to avoid inflicting yourself today a real suffering over hypothetical future damages.

Source: The Little Book of Stoicism, Jonas Salzgeber, self-published, 2019.