How To Panic

Writer and former option trader Nassim Taleb says that "if it’s worth panicking, panic early." The Stoics would appear to agree, with Seneca spending much of Letter XCI in Letters From A Stoic emphasizing that misfortunes are made worse when not prepared for. In matters both personal and societal, our key to making disruptions less disruptive is preparedness.

Often conjuring images of hyper reaction to a suddenly-realized vulnerable state, we tend to associate panic negatively, relegating it to something perceived as unproductively excessive. It's here that we benefit from meeting with the words of 17th century philosopher Thomas Hobbes: "Hell is the truth seen too late." It's a quip as sobering societally as it is personally.

In your own life, what are the recurring pains that could be avoided (or at minimum, minimized) with a bit of extra diligence? Future looking, what is an experience that, engaging the Stoic freedom to hold dispreferred indifferents, you would prefer to avoid? Be personal, practical, and specific, such that your solution can be, too.

We don't panic by overreacting. We panic by rightly acting in advance, prepared, to the best of our ability, to recover from whatever fate may deal us.

From increasing the amount that you save, to exercising more regularly, to going for that checkup, there are any number of shapes that productive panic can take. While we don't decide what comes, we can decide how prepared we are—how resilient we'll be—whenever it does.

Decide what's worth your own personal panic; in the form of thoughtful and pointed action, panic now.

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