[5th volume, EPILOGUE OF THE INCERTO As part of letters of advice, the kill-the-hope heuristic]:
Try to kill anything called hope in you. You never want to put yourself in a situation where you wish very badly for something specific to happen to you, an event that would tomorrow suddenly make a big difference for the rest of your life.
–Say, the outcome of a job interview or a lawsuit, a battle, winning the lotto, meeting a significant other, getting a paper accepted, have gold rise, have your employer go public, or other events that can markedly change your life. If one event, a single event makes a difference, and it doesn’t depend on you, then you are megafragile, a prisoner of circumstances.
–This is not to say that no good event can make a difference to you, rather that you do not need to dream about it. For the alternative should be acceptable enough for you. The outcome of the battle is not what matters, but how you fight; for that you do not need to hope and dream like a loser.
–Likewise if you end up losing a lawsuit or something of the sort, show off how honorable you are in handling defeat.
So, simply, get organized in a way to not have to dream tomorrow or the day after. It takes a while, a lot of work, and the certainty that the counterfactual is equally good for you.[Sensitity to counterfactuals]

via 2 [5th volume, EPILOGUE OF THE INCERTO As part of… – Nassim Nicholas Taleb.