This week you’ll give yourself gentle reminders that your plans may not go as anticipated by using the reserve clause, which is a major Stoic exercise that helps us remember that the results of our actions are not under our complete control. To add a reserve clause to your plans, explicitly remind yourself that a plan you’re making could go awry. For example, if you wanted to pick up your kids at 4:00 pm, you would tell yourself: I hope to pick up the kids at four, as long as nothing stops me. If you plan to pick up milk at the store, you’d say in your head: I’ll pick up more milk, presuming I can get to the store and they have some.

Warm up by adding reserve clauses to the following plans in your journal, or using the comments feature in your e-reader device.

Plan	Plan with reserve clause
I’ll wake up at 6:00 am tomorrow.
I’ll meet you at the diner at 8:00 pm.
I’d like to help him out.
Time for me to go for a run now.
I’d like to add reserve clauses to my plans this week.

Next, generate an implementation intention or two, to help remind yourself to add a reserve clause to your plans throughout the week.

The goal of the phase of the Discipline of Action you have worked on recently is to be more prosocial by doing more good in the world. However, the results of your actions are not under your complete control, just like other externals. This week’s exercise is meant to help take the sting out of when your plans don’t go as you wished, so that you are not discouraged in your attempts to become a better person. The reserve clause is a major method Stoics can use to motivate themselves to attempt to change the world for the better, while understanding, at a deep level, that the results may not always pan out as they hope.

Did you find that using the reserve clause helped you take action and accept when things went awry this week? Write about your experiences with the exercise. Don’t forget that if you need more space, you can access a printable PDF with blank prompts, quizzes, and journal pages at our website: theexperimentpublishing.com/?isbn=9781615195336.

Now that you’ve learned a bit about how to cope with plans going awry, let’s return to the concept of making the world a better place in the next chapter, by focusing on yourself.