The Stoics practiced imagining setbacks in advance, not to dread them, but to take the shock out of them. Seneca said the blow that's expected lands softer. When you've quietly considered that plans can fail, that loss can come, you're not blindsided when life does what life does. This isn't gloomy fortune-telling. It's gentle rehearsal. You spend a calm moment now picturing a difficulty, and you ask how you'd meet it. Often you find you'd cope better than your fear suggests. Then you set the thought down and return to your day, a little less fragile. Trouble arrives for everyone eventually. Having looked at it ahead of time, with a steady mind, you meet it as something you half expected.

Inspired by the old idea of voluntary discomfort. Written by Ugo Charles.