Seneca wrote Letter 13 specifically because groundless fear was a real problem in 65 AD (and it is still a problem today). The feared thing changes (job losses instead of political exiling, awkward emails instead of Senate conspiracies) but the mechanism is the same. We construct the catastrophe in fine detail, rehearse it, lose sleep over it, and then, more often than not, it simply never comes to pass.

Think about the last thing you genuinely dreaded. A difficult conversation, a medical result, or a career performance review. How much of the suffering happened in the days before it, in your head, entirely without prompting from reality? Seneca's point is that this pre-suffering is not preparation (nor is it useful) but elective psychological torment we’re champing at the bit to volunteer for — because we’re fools.

Don’t be naively optimistic (that’s foolish too), but learn to better distinguish between what is actually happening and what we are imagining might happen. One of these things you can respond to, while the other is complete fiction (for now).

But how can we do this, Tanner?

Well, you can start by attending tomorrow’s interactive workshop where we’ll be answering exactly this question (and many others about Stoicism). And it’s recorded for later followup. And you get 50% off with the promo code BREKKIE50.

So, like, attend it, and do more for yourself than just reading this newsletter 3x a week. Trust me, if you think a newsletter is useful, this workshop is 100x more so.

➡️ Click here to register