As I write this, I am also chatting with one of my sons who is on a biking adventure in Germany. The valve on the innertube on his back tire broke and it turns out that the spare innertube that he has doesn’t fit. And of course this happened in the middle of absolutely nowhere and the nearest bike shop is many, many miles away. So he is, as the saying goes, screwed. This is the challenge in many cases in our lives: things have worked well for a long time and there really is no reason to assume that it won’t work this time around. Until it suddenly does not. And then we need to solve it, if we are at all able to do anything at all. Of course, it doesn’t make sense to go through life worrying constantly. But it does make sense to reflect on the things that could go wrong and what you would do if this low risk, but high impact thing would happen. The Stoics use the practice of “premeditatio malorum” where you imagine the worst things that could go wrong in your life with the intent of mentally preparing for it and becoming more resilient. It has two advantages. First, it helps you to prepare for when misfortune hits. Second, it helps you to be grateful when bad things don’t happen, which luckily still is the most likely outcome. So, as my challenge to you today: what are the misfortunes that might affect you? And what is your backup plan?