MORNING STOICISMThe Argument That Never Happened
A reflection on Seneca
You sent the email at 9:14 this morning. It mattered, and you expected an answer by lunch. At three o'clock, the inbox is still empty.
At first, you tell yourself the other person must be busy. By four, you've reread your email twice and found a sentence that might have sounded rude. By 4:45, you're drafting a response to a harsh reply to your email that doesn't yet exist.
The only real fact is that someone hasn't answered your email.
Seneca, a Roman statesman who wrote some of the best-known Stoic letters, would have recognized this afternoon. He wrote that we suffer more in imagination than in reality. You've built a whole problem out of an empty inbox. Seneca would tell you to decide when you'll follow up, and then stop. Reading the email a twentieth time won't tell you anything the first reading didn't.
At 5:02, the reply arrives: “Sorry, back-to-back meetings all day. Looks great!”
PRACTICE FOR TODAY
When you catch yourself worrying about something that hasn't happened yet, and may never happen, ask yourself one question:
“Is there something useful I can do about this today?”
If there is, do it. Send the follow-up, or settle on a backup plan in case the news is bad.
If there's nothing more you can do today, set it aside. You've done what the day allows, and the rest can wait until something actually changes.
Don't let your mind build problems before they happen. Many of them never will.