Inversion: The crucial thinking skill

"We are more often frightened than hurt. And we suffer more from imagination than from reality." - Seneca

I was first introduced to the powerful technique of inverse thinking by Ryan Holiday's book The Obstacle is the way. In his recent article, James Clear reinvigorated the topic for me.

The premeditatio malorum, or "premeditation of evils", is a thinking exercise that has been applied by ancient Stoic philosophers such as Marcus Aurelius, Seneca and Epictetus.

How does it work?

“Premeditation of evils” simply means taking a moment to think through everything that could go wrong with a particular plan.

James explains:

The Stoics believed that by imagining the worst case scenario ahead of time, they could overcome their fears of negative experiences and make better plans to prevent them. While most people were focused on how they could achieve success, the Stoics also considered how they would manage failure. What would things look like if everything went wrong tomorrow? And what does this tell us about how we should prepare today?

Why you should define your fears instead of your goals

Inversion sheds a light on errors and roadblocks that could come up in the future. It trains you to imagine the worst, because if you have imagined it in vivid details, it is no longer an unknown and has less power over you.

On this topic I can also highly recommend Tim Ferriss' TED Talk on the topic, which goes into the details of how exactly he is using this technique.