Daily Stoic Entry #252: How Can I Prepare for the Losses I Fear?

September 10th, 2022

Follow along with my personal daily stoic journal, unfiltered, unedited (except for some spelling mistakes).

Morning Reflection:

As best as you can make your preparations in practical items and material terms. Do you fear job loss? Then have an emergency fund and continue to build skills so you can find another job. Or build another income stream that's separate from your main job. Fear of health problems? The treat your body as well as you can and then leave all thoughts about it and accept there will be things you can never prepare for or control. being mentally adaptable, to embrace what comes is the last step.

Evening Reflection:

I think another way to prepare is to fully embrace the idea that losses will come no matter what you do. And, in fact, embrace and look forward to these losses since it teaches you the beauty of what you've lost in different ways. Loss in some sense is the ultimate expression of love, it makes you realize what it was you've lost and in that pain you know. In a way the Buddhist tradition us to stop fighting reality and the need to make reality conform to our sense of reality. By which I mean to say that preparing for losses is rational but one also needs to realize and accept that you cannot, in the end, control if/when a loss or misfortune comes your way.

Title prompts are taken from The Daily Stoic Journal by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman.