Recently, I’ve tried waking up with a new mindset. It goes something like what Marcus Aurelius said 1900 years ago:

“When you wake up in the morning, tell yourself: the people I deal with today will be meddling, ungrateful, arrogant, dishonest, jealous and surly. They are like this because they can’t tell good from evil. But I have seen the beauty of good, and the ugliness of evil, and have recognized that the wrongdoer has a nature related to my own – not of the same blood and birth, but the same mind, and possessing a share of the divine. And so none of them can hurt me. No one can implicate me in ugliness. Nor can I feel angry at my relative, or hate him. We were born to work together like feet, hands and eyes, like the two rows of teeth, upper and lower. To obstruct each other is unnatural. To feel anger at someone, to turn your back on him: these are unnatural.”

Essentially: to expect the worst.

When you cross the street, expect a car to run you over. When you go outside, expect it to start raining. When you turn on your laptop, expect it to crash unexpectedly.

When it does happen, you’re not bothered. You were prepared. When it doesn’t happen – which is usually – you feel amazing.

It’s not about having low standards for yourself. It’s about framing your reality in a different light: one that is more helpful to your best life.

What you make of a situation is up to you.