"Here's a lesson to test your mind's mettle: take part of a week in which you have only the most meager and cheap food, dress scantly in shabby clothes, and ask yourself if this is really the worst that you feared. It is when times are good that you should gird yourself for tougher times ahead, for when Fortune is kind the soul can build defenses against her ravages. So it is that soldiers practice maneuvers in peacetime, erecting bunkers with no enemies in sight and exhausting themselves under no attack so that when it comes they won't grow tired."-SENECA, MORAL LETTERS, 18.5-6
("여러분의 마음을 단련할 수 있는 교훈을 드리겠습니다. 가장 저렴하고 기본적인 음식을 먹으며, 낡고 허름한 옷을 입고, 이것이 정말로 여러분이 두려워했던 최악의 상황인지 스스로에게 물어보십시오. 상황이 좋을 때야말로 더 힘든 시기를 대비해야 하는 때입니다. 운이 좋을 때는 영혼이 그녀의 공격에 대비할 수 있도록 방어책을 세울 수 있습니다. 그래서 군인들은 평화 시에도 훈련을 하며, 적이 보이지 않을 때도 참호를 세우고, 공격이 없을 때도 지치지 않도록 스스로를 혹사시키며, 공격이 오면 지치지 않기 위해 미리 준비하는 것입니다."-세네카,도덕편지18.5-6)
What if you spent one day a month experiencing the effects of poverty, hunger, complete isolation, or any other thing you might fear? After the initial culture shock, it would start to feel normal and no longer quite so scary.
There are plenty of misfortunes one can practice, plenty of problems one can solve in advance. Pretend your hot water has been turned off. Pretend your wallet has been stolen. Pretend your cushy mattress was far away and that you have to sleep on the floor, or that your car was repossessed and you have to walk everywhere. Pretend you lost your job and need to find...