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December 30th

TAKING THE BITE OUT OF IT

“To bear trials with a calm mind

robs misfortune of its strength and burden.”

—SENECA, HERCULES OETAEUS, 231–232

he people you admire, the ones who seem to be able to successfully
handle and deal with adversity and difficulty, what do they have in
common? Their sense of equilibrium, their orderly discipline. On the one-
yard line, in the midst of criticism, after a heartbreaking tragedy, during a
stressful period, they keep going.
Not because they’re better than you. Not because they’re smarter. But
because they have learned a little secret. You can take the bite out of any
tough situation by bringing a calm mind to it. By considering it and
meditating on it in advance.
And this is true not just for our day-to-day adversities but for the
greatest and most unavoidable trial of all: our own eventual death. It could
come tomorrow, it could come in forty years. It could be quick and painless,
or it could be excruciating. Our greatest asset in that ordeal will not be
religion, it will not even be the wise words of the philosophers. It will be,
simply, our calm and reasoned mind.