You're waiting on news you can't hurry. A job decision. An application. Something that matters, and refreshing your email won't make the calendar move faster.
Seneca wrote in a letter to his friend Lucilius, "We suffer more often in imagination than in reality." He wasn't asking anyone to pretend the wait is easy. He was naming what the mind does when it has too much time and not enough facts. It runs the bad ending early. Then it runs it again.
He put it even plainer later: "He suffers more than is necessary, who suffers before it is necessary." Planning ahead is useful. Living the pain before the day arrives is not. One helps you meet what comes. The other charges you for a bill that may never show up.
Feel the unease. That part is human. Then stop treating imagined outcomes like confirmed ones.
Here is a simple practice for a week when you're waiting:
Name one real task that still belongs to you today. Not a way to force the outcome. The next call, the next draft, the next errand you can actually finish.
Pick check-in times instead of checking all day. Once in the morning and once at night is enough for most news that isn't an emergency. Outside those windows, keep the phone away from the refresh habit.
Write the three paths once. Best case, okay case, hard case. Note one next step for each. Then close the note. You prepared. You do not need to rehearse the hard case all night.
You can't speed the reply. You can keep living the days in between without making them pay for a future that isn't here yet.
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