I prefer peace. But if trouble must come, let it come in my time, so that my children can live in peace.

Trouble that goes unhandled does not disappear; it waits, and it usually lands on whoever comes next. Choosing to take it on now is a way of spending your own difficulty so that someone you love spends less of theirs. That is not bravado, and nobody sensible wants the trouble. It is simply a decision about where the cost is going to fall.

Look at the thing your household or your work keeps postponing because it will be unpleasant. Take one piece of it on yourself this week, so that it is not still waiting for someone else.