September 10, 2026

Expect The Splash

Whenever you are about to attempt some action, remind yourself what kind of an action it is. If you are going out of the house to bathe, put before your mind what happens at a public bath—those who splash you, those who jostle against you, those who abuse you and rob you. And thus you will set about it more securely if you say to yourself at the outset, 'I wish to bathe, and at the same time to keep my will in harmony with nature'; and so in each thing you do; for thus, if anything happens to hinder you in your bathing, you will have it ready to say, 'Well, this was not the only thing that I wished, but I also wished to keep my will in harmony with nature; and I shall not so keep it, if I am vexed at what is happening.'

Epictetus taught in Nicopolis to young Romans preparing for public life, after himself having been enslaved and then freed, so he knew how quickly plans can be interrupted by other people's behavior. In this passage from the Enchiridion, his student Arrian records how he used the public bathhouse as an everyday example: before you go, picture the splashing, the jostling, the rude remarks, even the theft that regularly happens there. Epictetus's point is that your real goal was never just to bathe, but to keep your character steady through it, so you decide that in advance rather than in the heat of the moment. This is premeditatio malorum in its most ordinary form — not brooding on disaster, but walking through small frictions in your mind before you meet them, so your response is already chosen. The Stoics practiced this daily, applying it to travel, to conversations, to any plan at all, because the mind that has rehearsed resistance rarely loses its balance when resistance actually shows up.

A principle of Stoicism: Premeditatio Malorum →