Estimated reading time: 6 minutes
No matter how carefully you prepare for an interview, presentation or hard conversation, or the launch of a product, or how much effort you put into getting yourself ready for the event, the moment you’ve been waiting for could come to an unexpected and abrupt halt. Welcome to life!
You are not just going to fail to get what you wanted, you’ll feel as if all your hard work has been wasted.
The Stoics developed a way of addressing these feelings in an effective manner: The concept of “the reserve clause”. This concept states that you should pursue what you want fully, with the understanding that there are many external factors involved in achieving that goal. The result does not depend only on you.
The principle can be expressed in one sentence:
I will do this, if circumstances permit.
This is disciplined commitment without a claim over reality!
