A terrible fear: That we could lose our eyesight. How terrible it would be to be blind, feeling our way around through life as though we are in the dark.

Were you to tell a Stoic about this fear, they would nod and listen and then ask: Are you even really using your eyes? Do you truly take advantage of the gift of sight day in and day out? A blind Stoic might give you a response not unlike the blind magician (and karate black belt) Richard Turner did:

“My vision started going south when I was 9 years old. So I have no sight, but I don’t call myself blind because I see things in ways that other people can’t see…You know what I consider the worst disability of all? Procrastination and laziness. Give me blindness over that any day of the week.”

The point is don’t waste a second fearing some disability that is out of your hands. Look instead in the way that you inflict that disability on yourself already. You fear the loss of a loved one? What about yesterday when you spent thirty minutes on your phone instead of having a nice conversation? You fear being robbed…yet you rob yourself with pointless, irresponsible shopping habits all the time. See where this is going?

No reason to be afraid. Just be on top of yourself. Don’t waste a second. Don’t disable yourself.