Coaching practices for Premeditatio Malorum in Depth with My Team
Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For Premeditatio Malorum in Depth with My Team, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.
Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?
- I’m about to commit to this plan and on paper it looks solid, but a quiet part of me suspects I’m too sold on it to see the holes
- I keep putting off the things I say matter most as if I have unlimited time, and I’m losing days to small grievances and "somedays"
- I’m about to commit to this timeline and on paper it all looks fine, but I have a nagging feeling I’m glossing over the ways it could go sideways because admitting them now feels like talking myself out of it before I’ve even started.
- There’s a setback I can see coming and what scares me most isn’t the thing itself but being blindsided by it
- I’m all-in on this plan and can barely make myself imagine it going wrong
Practices that may help
- The premortem (imagine the project already failed)
Before starting, assume the plan has already failed and ask why — then fix it now.
Premeditatio Malorum, in Depth - Premeditatio Malorum, in Depth
Premeditatio malorum — the "premeditation of evils" — is the Stoic practice of deliberately imagining loss and adversity in advance: to take the shock out of setbacks, restore gratitude for what you have, and pre-plan your response. It comes in several variants (mental subtraction, worst-case rehearsal, fear-setting, the premortem) with different aims. The strongest support is the overlap with studied gratitude, exposure, and planning mechanisms — used briefly and bounded, since done wrong it tips into worry. - Memento mori as the ultimate premeditation
Premeditate the final loss — your own death — as a clarifier of what actually matters now.
Premeditatio Malorum, in Depth - Run a premortem before committing
Imagine the project has already failed and work backwards to find why.
The Planning Fallacy — Why Your Estimates Are Always Wrong - Worst-case rehearsal (take the shock out)
Calmly rehearse a likely setback in advance so it arrives expected, not as an ambush.
Premeditatio Malorum, in Depth - Run a pre-mortem from the outside-view perspective
Imagine the project has failed — then ask which base-rate failure type caused it.
The Outside View - Combine the pre-mortem with red team pressure
Run a pre-mortem and then ask the red team to find the failure mode the team missed.
Red Teaming: Stress-Testing Plans Before They Fail - Pair the pre-mortem with a clear success vision
Balance failure analysis with an equally concrete picture of what success requires.
The Pre-Mortem: Imagine It Already Failed - The Pre-Mortem: Imagine It Already Failed
A pre-mortem, developed by psychologist Gary Klein, has a team imagine that a plan has already failed and then work backward to explain why — before any work begins. The technique exploits "prospective hindsight": research found that imagining an outcome as a certainty makes people generate more, and more specific, reasons for it, surfacing risks that ordinary risk assessment misses. - Use reflective simulation to convert anxiety into planning
Mentally walk through what could go wrong — then convert each potential failure into a specific preparation action.
Defensive Pessimism, Made Practical
Related concerns
- Premeditatio Malorum
Premeditatio malorum — the "premeditation of evils" — is the Stoic practice of deliberately imagining loss and adversity in advance: to take the shock out of setbacks, restore gratitude for what you have, and pre-plan your response. It comes in several variants (mental subtraction, worst-case rehearsal, fear-setting, the premortem) with different aims. The strongest support is the overlap with studied gratitude, exposure, and planning mechanisms — used briefly and bounded, since done wrong it tips into worry.
- Premeditatio Malorum In Depth When Burned Out
Premeditate the final loss — your own death — as a clarifier of what actually matters now.
Memento mori as the ultimate premeditation
- Premeditatio Malorum In Depth When Starting Out
Before starting, assume the plan has already failed and ask why — then fix it now.
The premortem (imagine the project already failed)
- Project Premortem
A pre-mortem, developed by psychologist Gary Klein, has a team imagine that a plan has already failed and then work backward to explain why — before any work begins. The technique exploits "prospective hindsight": research found that imagining an outcome as a certainty makes people generate more, and more specific, reasons for it, surfacing risks that ordinary risk assessment misses.
- How To Run A Pre Mortem
A pre-mortem, developed by psychologist Gary Klein, has a team imagine that a plan has already failed and then work backward to explain why — before any work begins. The technique exploits "prospective hindsight": research found that imagining an outcome as a certainty makes people generate more, and more specific, reasons for it, surfacing risks that ordinary risk assessment misses.
- Planning Premortem
A pre-mortem, developed by psychologist Gary Klein, has a team imagine that a plan has already failed and then work backward to explain why — before any work begins. The technique exploits "prospective hindsight": research found that imagining an outcome as a certainty makes people generate more, and more specific, reasons for it, surfacing risks that ordinary risk assessment misses.
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