- Premeditatio malorum is the practice of thinking about how things could go wrong, sometimes referred to as “negative visualization.”
- Using premeditatio malorum is a great way to make contingency plans—by thinking of solutions to possible problems, you can sometimes prevent them.
- Premeditatio malorum can improve your decision making skills as well as expand your perspective on the human condition.
What is premeditatio malorum?
Premeditatio malorum is Latin for the “premeditation of evils.” In the simplest terms, practicing premeditatio malorum is just thinking about the worst case scenario in any event, and then coming up with a way to respond to it. For example, if you want to be 30 minutes early to a flight, you may budget an extra hour into your travel time just in case traffic is bad, security lines are long, or you forget something at home.
Premeditatio malorum is sometimes called “negative visualization.” You may have heard of positive visualization, sometimes known as manifesting. The basic premise is that putting yourself in the mindset of succeeding helps you succeed. While premeditatio malorum is the inverse process, the success oriented end goals are the same. Visualization practices are about using the power of the mind to influence the outside world. In both scenarios, the practitioner is reminded that the boundary between personal reality and shared reality is always permeable. If positive visualization clears your way to success (it’s much harder to achieve your goals if you don’t think you can), negative visualization trains you to navigate that path. By working through scenarios beforehand, you improve your problem solving skills, which allows you to face unexpected challenges more readily.
History of Premeditatio Malorum
Premeditatio malorum is a Stoic practice. Stoicism was an ancient school of practical philosophy, meaning their teachings weren’t supposed to be theoretical, they were supposed to be applied to everyday life. One such concept was premeditatio malorum.
This practice came from the three Stoic ideas of control. The Stoics believed there were three sections of life: what’s in your control, what’s not in your control, and what’s partially in your control. They believed you could use premeditatio malorum to strengthen and expand what you can control. For example, you can’t control the actions of another person, but you can control your own actions, and therefore have partial control over the outcome of an interaction between the two of you.
Premeditatio malorum was how the Stoics addressed the human condition. The Stoics knew that there was very little they had control over—that’s why they took such great pains to find ways to exercise that control. Considering their world as indifferent to them helped the Stoics see potential suffering and subvert it. In the Enchiridion, Epictetus presents Stoicism: understand what you can and can’t control, and never be bothered again. It’s a vast oversimplification, but that’s the root. Premeditatio malorum exists to help you tease out where that boundary is and accept the dichotomy between you (in your control) and everything else (out of your control). This, once again, isn’t a negative way of thinking, just a practical one. The Stoics were trying to give themselves good, pleasant lives that had no excess suffering—part of that, to them, was accepting that while they were the center of their own lives, they weren’t the center of anything else.
How to Use Premeditatio Malorum
Consider issues you’ve faced in the past in day to day life. Premeditatio malorum isn’t just for major decisions—it can be applied to almost every situation. Waking up every morning and thinking about how you can address life’s challenges encourages a resilient, confident mindset. For example, if you go into your commute thinking: “The other drivers on the road don’t know me or my needs and will act only according to their own,” you’re more likely to drive defensively and less likely to get angry if you’re cut off. If you know your partner’s been having a tough time, consider the possibility that they may ask you to put their needs before your own. If you’re prepared, you’re more likely to make sacrifices with grace.
For big projects, make a list of everything that could go wrong. If you’re working on something significant, whether it’s starting a new business or planning your wedding ceremony, take time to write a concrete list of specific things that could go wrong. Then, go through the list and find solutions. The more things you cover, the more backup plans you can make. Plan A is always the best option, of course, but it’s helpful to have a B, C, and D waiting in the wings. For example, if you’re planning an outdoor wedding, the first scenario might be: “What happens if it rains?” and your plan might be: “We rent a tent.” Then, the next worst case scenario—“What if it’s really windy?”—and the plan would be “We rent an indoor/outdoor venue.” In the business world, this kind of thinking is called a “premortem.” In premortems (as opposed to postmortems) people go over all the ways a project could fail, and then try to reverse engineer solutions to those problems. A Harvard study on “prospective hindsight” in 1989 concluded that trying to find solutions beforehand to potential failures increases your ability to find future solutions by 30%.
Consider how your plans affect other people. A large part of what lies outside of your control are other people’s reactions. By specifically thinking about (and maybe even speaking to) the people involved/affected by your plans, you’re not only more likely to succeed, but you’re also more likely to do right by everyone. For example, if you’re trying to redistribute power in a community, think about the places where power will be distributed from. Consider the possible reactions people might have—defensiveness, resistance, anger, sadness—when they’re asked to give up power to be ready to respond to the emotions of the situation. If you’re trying to make a chore chart, you might individually ask the people on it what they’d like to do. If you find no one wants to do one of the chores, like cleaning the kitchen, you can adapt by making the kitchen chore rotational, having two people work it, or letting the kitchen person not take on any other chores.
Adapt to what you can’t control. You can’t account for everything that could happen, so the next time you're facing the worst case scenario, apply your premeditatio malorum mindset to the issues you didn’t plan for. The more potential plans you draft, the easier it is to come up with something on the spot. Premeditatio malorum is a practice in gratitude as much as it is resilience. Be grateful for the person you are, who carried you this far and took such care to prepare for your future. When you face a challenge you prepared for—when you overcome that challenge—thank yourself, thank the Stoics, thank the indifferent universe of which we are a part.
Benefits of Premeditatio Malorm
Exercising premeditatio malorum builds your resilience. While thinking negatively may seem..uh...negative—it’s really not. Premeditatio malorum isn’t about how life gets you down, it’s about the power of pulling yourself back up. By trying to foil your own plans you become more adaptable and responsive, instead of reactive.
Practicing premeditatio malorum is a way to avoid “pain.” Stoicism has a different view of emotion/passion than people do today. When they say they want to avoid pain, what they mean is they want to avoid doing something they already judged as having a bad outcome. The way to do this? Premeditatio malorum.
Using premeditatio malorum helps boost your creativity. When you use your imagination to find solutions to possible problems, you get your creative juices flowing. Whether you thought of something beforehand or not, you’re better prepared to face hardship and come up with an answer if you’ve practiced premeditatio malorum.
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