Providence: Making Your Own Luck in Life

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📚 Read Time: 10 Minutes 

We’re not talking about the capital of Rhode Island or an insurance company slogan. 

When we say Providence, we mean foresight in action, the quiet work of preparing today for what tomorrow might bring. It’s that extra set of clothes in your gym bag “just in case,” the emergency fund no one sees, the training runs in the off-season darkness. It’s less about trusting fate and more about shaping it. 

Providence is prudence with a dash of faith. It’s the conviction that your future is worth the effort now, without needing a divine mandate to make it so. When fate tosses a curveball, providence is the glove you already broke in. In a world that often defaults to winging it, this week we’re spotlighting the power of being prepared, and the kind of destiny you earn through choice and action. 

What we’ll cover: 

🧭 What Is Providence? – A clear definition of providence (timely preparation for future eventualities), why it’s one of Tiger Resilience’s five pillars, and how it differs from leaving things to fate. 

🧠🩺 The Science of Being Provident: How our brains are wired for prospection (future-thinking) and why a sense of control and preparation benefits the body (lower stress, better health). 

📊 Stats Worth Knowing: Numbers on planning and outcomes, from the 92% of people who fail their goals without a plan to the health and success boosts that come with a future-focused mindset. 

🐅 Tiger Resilience Lens: Providence vs. Fate: A breakdown of how a provident approach (active preparation) versus a fatalistic outlook (passive “what will be, will be”) impacts your body, mind, heart, and spirit. 

🏋️ Michael’s Training Corner: Stewardship of the Body – Why taking care of your physical self is an act of providence, and how the discipline of training pays dividends in every other area of life. Plus, two real-world ways a healthy body quietly improves day-to-day living (with data-backed results, not fluff). 

🌍 Real-World Spotlight: Hal Hershfield – Bridging Present and Future – Meet the psychologist who has spent his career helping people “meet” their future selves, proving that connecting to tomorrow can change your decisions today. 

📝 Journal Exercise: A guided reflection to identify where you can be more provident in life, and a prompt to plan one small step now that your future self will thank you for. (Includes our Awaken the Tiger and Phoenix Self-Esteem Journal prompts.) 

🔥 Final Thoughts: How Providence intertwines with the other four pillars (Purpose, Planning, Practice, Perseverance), and why resilience isn’t just about reacting to hardship, it’s about pre-acting to shape better outcomes. 

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🧭 What Is Providence? 

At its core, providence means timely preparation for future needs or events. It’s foresight in practice, the opposite of simply hoping the chips fall in your favor. You don’t need religion to live providently. Think of it as making your own luck by doing today what your future self will thank you for tomorrow. 

The word itself has deep historical and spiritual roots, often tied to “Divine Providence,” or the belief in a guiding force that shapes life’s direction. We respect that meaning, and for many, faith is a powerful part of resilience. 

But in the Tiger Resilience model, we approach Providence through a universal lens: it’s not about leaving outcomes to destiny, it’s about participating in the process. 

It’s the meeting point between belief and responsibility, trusting that what’s meant for you will unfold, while still doing the work to be ready for it. 

Within the Five Pillars of Tiger Resilience, Purpose, Planning, Practice, Perseverance, and Providence, this pillar represents active participation in your own future. 

Fate says, “Whatever will be, will be.” 

Providence says, “What will be is influenced by what I do now.” 

Providence looks like: 

• Saving before you need it.  
• Training before you’re tested.  
• Preparing even when no one’s watching.  
• Acting on what’s in your control and trusting the rest.  

Providence is a form of self-respect. It’s seeing your future self as someone worth caring for, not a stranger you’ll meet someday. When that connection strengthens, preparation stops feeling restrictive and starts feeling purposeful. You’re not denying yourself; you’re investing in yourself. 

As psychologist Martin Seligman observed, “Anticipating and evaluating future possibilities is the cornerstone of human success.” 

We’re wired to look ahead. Providence simply calls us to do it with intention. 

Because when you’ve done the work to prepare, life’s uncertainty feels less like threat, and more like opportunity.

Michael’s Perspective: The Fear of an Uncertain Future 

It’s funny, when I hear the word providence, a few specific things immediately come to mind, even after all this time and after building it into one of the five pillars of Tiger Resilience.

First is Providence College, the school I once dreamed of running for, under a coach who built one of the best distance programs in the country. The second is failure. 

As you could probably guess, I didn’t end up running there. In fact, I didn’t run in college at all, something that’s become a major driving force for why I value training, competition, and self-mastery so much now. I run today because I didn’t then. And that’s the essence of providence: what you didn’t get becomes what you prepare for. 

Failure, when you really sit with it, is often just the fear of an uncertain future wearing a different mask. The hierarchy I’ve come to use in coaching and in my own life, what I've seen called The Five Fears of Failure, makes that clear: 

• Fear of shame and embarrassment. 
• Fear of losing a positive self-image. 
• Fear of an uncertain future. 
• Fear of important others losing interest in us. 
• Fear of upsetting or letting down important others. 

Each of these cuts differently depending on who you are, but the one that’s always hit me hardest is the third, fear of an uncertain future. Because uncertainty has a way of making you hesitate just when you need to move most. 

That’s where providence steps in. It’s the antidote to paralysis. It’s what happens when you choose preparation over panic, structure over speculation.
The act of being provident isn’t about avoiding failure, it’s about meeting it on purpose. It’s about rehearsing the future so thoroughly that when it arrives, you’re already acquainted. 

When I coach athletes or clients, I often remind them that being provident isn’t abstract. It’s practical. It’s choosing to invest energy in the version of you who’s not here yet. It’s understanding that the decisions you make today either honor or abandon your future self. 

You can do that through a few powerful habits: 

• Visualize your future self. Create a mental picture of who you want to become, not just what you’ll have, but how you’ll feel, move, and lead. 
• Write a letter to your future self. Strengthen that psychological connection. It makes discipline personal, not a rule, but a relationship. 
• Make decisions with your future self in mind. Every choice either compounds or conflicts with your long-term vision. 
• Shape your environment. Surround yourself with cues that support the identity you’re building. You can’t always rely on motivation, but you can rely on design. 
• Focus on intentional work. The goal isn’t to only do hard things,  it’s to do meaningful things with precision. That’s how training, in any form, becomes an act of foresight. 

I’ve learned that providence doesn’t guarantee success, it guarantees readiness. It doesn’t mean you’ll always win; it means you’ll always have earned the right to compete. 

And in a strange way, I’m grateful I never ran for Providence College. Because if I had, I might never have understood what providence truly means, not as a place, but as a posture. It’s the way you approach the unknown: not with fear, but with preparation and faith that your effort today is shaping something worthwhile tomorrow. 

That’s what I carry into every run, every lift, and every plan I write.
The belief that the work you do now is already building the person who will meet what’s next. 

Providence should be seeing your future in the present, and realizing the life you prepared for is already unfolding.

Bernie’s Perspective: Providence and the Promise of Tomorrow 

It was a Monday night. I was eleven years old. 

My mother woke me around 11 p.m. — the kind of wake-up that immediately tells you something isn’t right. She said we needed to go to the hospital. My father, her husband, wasn’t doing well. 

I remember the car ride there — foggy, dreamlike, like I was floating through someone else’s story. When we arrived, my father was already in the ICU. They let me go in, mask on, to see him. The man who’d always stood tall and strong at six-foot-two was now barely a hundred pounds. Cancer had stolen his body, but even then, I swear I could still feel his spirit in the room. 

My aunt Peg and uncle Joe came, too. My younger siblings were home asleep. I was the oldest — and I was my father’s son through and through — so it made sense I was there. 

A nurse noticed how tired I looked and offered me a place to rest. She led me into the staff lounge — sterile furniture, cold linoleum floors, that hospital smell that somehow mixes both bleach and heartbreak. She handed me a pillow, and I laid down on a futon. 

I must’ve drifted off, because the next thing I remember was waking to the sharp rhythm of heels clicking down the hallway. I didn’t even need to open my eyes. Aunt Peg. Always in heels. 

And in that exact instant, I knew. 

Before she spoke. Before she touched my hand. Before the words existed. 

My father was gone. 

She sat beside me, took my hand, and I said, “I already know.” 

That night changed me. It was the moment I first understood what Providence really is. 

It wasn’t a thunderclap revelation — it was quiet. A deep knowing that, somehow, there was more than just random chaos in the world. That there was meaning — even if I couldn’t see it yet. 

If I could feel something so deeply, I thought, then maybe — just maybe — I could also feel hope. Maybe tomorrow could still hold something better. 

That small spark carried me for decades. 

Because after that night, life didn’t get easier. My family fell apart within a year. My mother remarried quickly. The next few years were… dark. There’s no poetic way to put it. I was eventually homeless. And yet, even on the nights when I had nothing — no roof, no plan, no safety — I would close my eyes and imagine the kind of father I wanted to be someday. 

One who protected his child. 

Who loved without conditions. 

Who would never let them feel that kind of loneliness. 

That vision — that Providence — kept me alive. And decades later, it became reality. 

My son Michael is that vision made flesh. He never had to experience what I did. And now, he’s not only my son but my business partner in Tiger Resilience — building something we both believe can help others rise from their own chaos. 

That’s Providence. 

It’s not fate. It’s not luck. It’s the intersection of faith, foresight, and hard work. It’s trusting that if you show up with belief and effort, life can still bend toward something good. 

And yes — I’ve read all the “manifestation” books. I get it. But to me, Providence isn’t just wishing on a star. It’s rolling up your sleeves and saying, “I don’t know how this will work out, but I believe it can — and I’m going to act like it will.” 

That’s the balance. Faith with footsteps. 

Years ago, when I read Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl, I underlined this passage: 

“In some way, suffering ceases to be suffering at the moment it finds a meaning.” 

Frankl, imprisoned in a Nazi camp, imagined himself two years in the future — free, standing before a classroom, teaching students about the very pain he was enduring. That vision gave his suffering purpose. And he lived to fulfill it. 

I understood that deeply. My version of that classroom was a promise I made to my future family. Frankl’s story gave language to what I had already felt: Providence begins when we decide to imagine something worth living for. 

Even now, I practice Providence every day. I get up, plant my feet on the floor, and remind myself that as long as I can do that — I still have the chance to make tomorrow better. 

So, if you’re reading this and feel like tomorrow holds nothing but the same weight as today — pause. 

You don’t have to have it all figured out. Just hold one small vision for something better. Because the word “impossible” breaks down to “I’m possible.” 

And remember this: 

Energy flows where focus goes. 

Focus on your potential, not your pain. 

That’s Providence in action.

🧠🩺 The Science of Being Provident 

Providence isn’t abstract, it’s neurobiology in action. When you plan, prepare, and practice foresight, your brain and body align toward stability instead of stress. 

🧠 In the Brain 

• Prospection (future-thinking) lives in the prefrontal cortex, the same region that governs decision-making, planning, and emotional control.   
• Each time you imagine or prepare for a future event, you’re creating neural blueprints for behavior, training the brain to recognize opportunities when they appear.   
• The brain often treats the future self as a stranger, which makes saving money, exercising, or delaying gratification harder. Strengthening that connection through journaling, visualization, or planning rewires this response.   
• People with a strong internal locus of control, who believe their actions influence outcomes, show lower cortisol, better focus, and higher resilience.   
• Preparation quiets the amygdala (the brain’s alarm system) and activates executive networks responsible for calm, goal-directed action.   

🩺 In the Body 

• When you prepare, your body reads it as safety. Heart rate steadies, breathing slows, and cortisol levels balance.   
• A clear plan tells the nervous system, “I’m ready,” shifting the body from survival mode to readiness mode.   
• Uncertainty and lack of control do the opposite: they keep the system in low-grade fight-or-flight, increasing inflammation and fatigue.  
• Research shows that people who attribute health or success to fate show higher anxiety, more hospital visits, and lower long-term outcomes than those who take proactive steps.  
• Consistency, like regular exercise, structured routines, or meal planning, builds physiological stability. The body learns to expect balance instead of threat.  

Takeaway: 

Being provident trains the entire system to trust itself. When you plan and act ahead, your brain becomes calmer, your body more efficient, and your stress response more adaptive. 

Preparation doesn’t just prevent chaos, it programs resilience.

📊 Stats Worth Knowing 

The data is clear: people who prepare, plan, and take action toward the future consistently outperform those who rely on chance. Providence isn’t just mindset, it’s measurable. 

Preparation and Success 

• 92% of people fail to meet their goals when they don’t create a written plan (Psychology Today, 2023).   
• Those who set clear, structured goals are 10x more likely to achieve them compared to those with vague intentions (Harvard Business Review).   
• Workers who proactively manage time and stress report 30–50% higher performance ratings and less burnout (APA, 2022).   

Health and Longevity 

• People who feel a sense of agency and control over their lives live, on average, seven years longer than those who feel powerless (Langer & Rodin, 1976; follow-up meta-analyses confirm).   
• Future-focused individuals show lower cortisol levels, better immune function, and higher heart-rate variability (Stanford Center on Longevity, 2020).   
• Having a “readiness mindset” is linked to lower allostatic load, the cumulative stress wear on the body (NIH, 2022).

Financial and Behavioral Outcomes 

• Adults who plan ahead financially are 2.5x more likely to recover successfully from unexpected expenses or job loss (Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, 2023).   
• Those who visualize their future selves save an average of 36% more toward retirement (Hal Hershfield, UCLA Anderson School of Management).   
• People with strong future orientation report higher happiness and lower anxiety across demographics (Journal of Positive Psychology, 2022).

🐅 Tiger Resilience Lens: Providence vs. Fate 

Providence and fate often get framed as opposites, but they’re not enemies. Fate is the element of life beyond our control, while Providence is how we partner with it. Fate gives us context; Providence gives us agency. 

Providence doesn’t reject fate, it refines it. 

It’s the bridge between trust and effort, between what’s chosen and what’s given. 

Takeaway: 

Resilience isn’t control, it’s collaboration with uncertainty. 

Fate shapes the terrain, but Providence determines how you move through it. 

When they work together, life feels less like a gamble, and more like a partnership with purpose.

🏋️ Michael’s Training Corner: Stewardship of the Body 

Part 1: Control, Coordination, and Self-Trust 

Providence in training starts with stewardship, treating your body not as a project to fix, but as a system to care for and guide. Every rep, stride, or stretch is a rehearsal in control. You’re teaching your nervous system to trust you. 

In coaching, we talk about neuromuscular control as the foundation of both strength and confidence. When you practice movement with precision, focusing on form, rhythm, and breathing, you train the brain to regulate under load. That’s not just performance; it’s patterning resilience. 

Studies show that athletes who develop higher proprioceptive awareness (the brain’s ability to sense and adjust the body in space) have significantly lower injury rates and higher emotional regulation. The same neural pathways that stabilize your posture under a barbell help stabilize your focus under stress. Physical discipline rewires self-regulation at every level. 

Providence in training isn’t about chasing outcomes, it’s about preparing the system to respond well when the unknown hits. You can’t predict the conditions on race day or in life. But you can build control so consistent that chaos doesn’t break you, it just becomes another environment you’re ready for. 

Part 2: The Ripple Effects of Stewardship 

Physical stewardship doesn’t just shape the body; it transforms the rest of life. Research consistently shows that regular training improves far more than strength or endurance: 

• Cognitive performance: Active individuals demonstrate up to 20% faster processing speed and better executive function compared to sedentary peers (University of Illinois, 2021).   
• Career outcomes: Employees who exercise regularly report 15% higher productivity and 30% lower absenteeism (Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 2020).   
• Daily functioning: Strength-trained adults maintain independence longer, simple tasks like carrying groceries, climbing stairs, or playing with kids stay effortless well into later decades.   
• Mental health: Consistent physical activity reduces anxiety and depressive symptoms by 25–30%, rivaling first-line interventions (Lancet Psychiatry, 2022).   

In simple terms: a trained body expands what you’re capable of, physically, mentally, emotionally, and even economically. It’s an act of providence because it’s forward-looking. You’re not training for the mirror, you’re training for the moments life will require strength, clarity, or stamina you didn’t know you’d need. 

Takeaway: 

From a coaching lens, I’ll say this: taking control of your body can be a gateway to taking control of your life. I’ve seen people go from unfit and doubting themselves to getting in shape, and suddenly they’re also organizing their finances, improving relationships, maybe even pursuing new careers. It’s as if once they prove to themselves they can change one fundamental thing (their own body and habits), a lightbulb goes off: “Oh, I hold the pen in writing my story.” That internal shift is priceless. Providence in your health becomes providence in life. You start planning meals, then planning budgets; you schedule workout routines, then you start scheduling personal development goals. It’s all connected.

🌍 Real-World Spotlight: Hal Hershfield — Bridging Present and Future 

If Providence is foresight in action, Hal Hershfield is one of the modern voices proving that science backs it up. 

A professor at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management, Hershfield has spent his career studying how people relate to their future selves, and why that relationship can change everything from health to happiness to financial security. 

His core finding is simple but profound: 

“We make better long-term choices when we feel emotionally connected to the person we’ll become.” 

In one landmark experiment, Hershfield used age-progressed digital images of participants’ faces to help them see their future selves. Those who viewed their older versions immediately chose to save more money for retirement, by as much as 36 percent more than control groups. The conclusion? When we visualize the future as us, not someone else, we act with greater care and discipline. 

That insight applies far beyond finances. 

People who regularly imagine and plan for their future selves show: 

• Improved health behaviors, from consistent exercise to better nutrition. 
• Stronger goal persistence and lower procrastination.   
• Higher overall life satisfaction and emotional regulation.   

Hershfield’s research aligns perfectly with the Tiger Resilience philosophy: resilience isn’t just recovery, it’s relationship. 

When you see your future self as part of your current tribe, every act of preparation becomes an act of compassion. You’re not deferring joy, you’re building continuity between who you are and who you’re becoming. 

📘 Recommended Reading: 

Hal Hershfield (2023). Your Future Self: How to Make Tomorrow Better Today. Riverhead Books. 

Amazon Link

📝 Journal Exercise: Preparing Today for the You of Tomorrow 

Providence begins with awareness, seeing that future you isn’t a stranger, but someone already depending on your choices today. This reflection helps bridge that gap and bring foresight into action. 

Take 10 quiet minutes with your Awaken the Tiger and Phoenix Self-Esteem Journal, or any notebook you use for reflection, and work through the prompts below. 

Why Writing Matters 

Before you start, remember this: writing by hand is a neuromuscular act of integration. 

When your pen moves across the page, your brain engages in what’s called kinesthetic encoding, a process where motion and thought link together to form stronger, longer-lasting neural patterns. Studies show that handwriting improves emotional regulation, focus, and retention because the physical movement slows thinking just enough to make reflection stick. 

Typing is fine for lists. But writing can be such a powerful tool to build real awareness.  

Part 1: Picture Your Future Self 

• Where do you imagine yourself a year from now, physically, emotionally, and mentally?  
• What choices today could make that version of you stronger, calmer, or more fulfilled?  
• If your future self could speak to you, what would they thank you for?  

Part 2: Identify Your Provident Habits 

• What are three small ways you already prepare for the future without realizing it?  
• Where could you create more readiness, health, relationships, finances, or mindset?  
• Which area of your life feels most reactive, and what’s one action that could make it proactive?   

Part 3: Commit to One Step 

• Choose one simple, concrete act of providence for this week. 
• Maybe it’s planning your meals, organizing your budget, scheduling recovery, or calling someone you’ve been meaning to reconnect with. 
• Write it down, commit to it, and follow through.  

For deeper reflections that strengthen your connection to self and purpose, explore the Awaken the Tiger and Phoenix Self-Esteem Journal here: 

📘 https://www.amazon.com/Awaken-Tiger-Phoenix-build-Esteem/dp/B0DBRWTGS9

🔥 Final Thoughts: The Four Pillars and Providence 

Providence is the quiet power behind resilience, the steady preparation that makes strength look effortless. It’s what allows grace under pressure, calm in uncertainty, and movement when others freeze. 

Every pillar of Tiger Resilience builds toward it: 

• Purpose gives direction — the why that makes preparation meaningful.   
• Planning gives structure — the framework that turns intention into action.   
• Practice builds consistency — the daily repetitions that create stability.   
• Perseverance sustains progress — the endurance that keeps you steady through adversity.   
• Providence ties it all together — the foresight that ensures your preparation meets the moment.   

When you live providently, you’re not trying to control the future, you’re preparing to meet it well. You move through life ready, not rigid. Grounded, not anxious. It’s a balance of discipline and trust: doing what’s yours to do, and allowing time to do the rest. 

And in that space, between what you can shape and what you must surrender, you find resilience. 

Because resilience isn’t reactive. It’s proactive. 

It’s foresight turned into action. 

So this week, prepare with purpose. 

Invest in the small, quiet actions your future self will thank you for. 

The work you do today will become the strength you stand on tomorrow. 

Stay Resilient

Bernie & Michael

📚 References 

American Psychological Association. (2022). Work and well-being survey: Stress and performance. https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/stress/2022/sia-performance 

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. (2023). Financial well-being in America. https://www.consumerfinance.gov/data-research/research-reports/financial-well-being-america-2023/ 

Hal Hershfield, H. (2023). Your Future Self: How to Make Tomorrow Better Today. Riverhead Books. https://www.amazon.com/Your-Future-Self-Tomorrow-Better/dp/0316421251 

Harvard Business Review. (2021). Research: Writing down goals increases achievement tenfold. https://hbr.org/ 

Holt-Lunstad, J., Smith, T. B., & Layton, J. B. (2010). Social relationships and mortality risk: A meta-analytic review. PLoS Medicine, 7(7), e1000316. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1000316 

Journal of Occupational Health Psychology. (2020). Exercise and workplace performance: Meta-analytic evidence. https://doi.org/10.1037/ocp0000185 

Lancet Psychiatry. (2022). Physical activity and depression: Systematic review and meta-analysis. The Lancet Psychiatry, 9(5), 366–378. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2215-0366(22)00045-1 

Langer, E., & Rodin, J. (1976). The effects of choice and enhanced personal responsibility for the aged: A field experiment in an institutional setting. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 34(2), 191–198. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.34.2.191 

Martin E. P. Seligman. (2018). The Hope Circuit: A Psychologist’s Journey from Helplessness to Optimism. PublicAffairs. https://www.publicaffairsbooks.com/titles/martin-e-p-seligman/the-hope-circuit/9781610398732/ 

National Institutes of Health. (2022). Allostatic load and chronic stress research summary. https://www.nih.gov/ 

Psychology Today. (2023). Why 92% of people don’t achieve their goals. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/mind-my-business/202308/why-92-percent-of-people-dont-achieve-their-goals 

Stanford Center on Longevity. (2020). Mindset, stress, and aging: Longitudinal findings. https://longevity.stanford.edu/ 

University of Illinois. (2021). Exercise improves executive function through prefrontal activation. NeuroImage, 231, 117832. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2021.117832 

U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, National Institutes of Health. (2023). Allostatic load and resilience metrics. https://www.nih.gov/news-events 

 Valtorta, N. K., Kanaan, M., Gilbody, S., Ronzi, S., & Hanratty, B. (2016). Loneliness and social isolation as risk factors for coronary heart disease and stroke: Systematic review and meta-analysis of longitudinal observational studies. Heart, 102(13), 1009–1016. https://doi.org/10.1136/heartjnl-2015-308790