Epictetus liked to tell his students about the senator Paconius Agrippinus. While his trial was running in the Senate, on charges that rarely ended well under Nero, Agrippinus refused to sit at home waiting. It was his usual hour to exercise and bathe, so that is what he did. There the message reached him: condemned. His first question: to death or to banishment? Banishment, said the messenger. And my property? You keep it. Good, said Agrippinus, then let us go to Aricia and have lunch there.
Your whole existence hangs on other people's verdict, and there is nothing more you can do about it. Most people in that position stop their lives and suffer in advance.
The verdict lay with the Senate; his morning lay with him. Agrippinus refused to pay for the part that was not his with the part that was. Even the first meal of his exile he planned himself.
Which verdict of others are you waiting for, and how many of your days are you already paying toward it? What would change if you simply took your hour today?
Yours, Not Yours · A Stoic practice ground · All cases