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- practice misfortune
“It is in times of security that the spirit should be preparing itself for difficult times；while fortune is bestowing favors on it is the time for it to be strengthened against her rebuffs.”--seneca
senaca,who enjoyed great wealth as the adviser of Nero,suggested that we ought to set aside a certain number of days each month to practice poverty. Take a liitle food,wear your worst clothes,get away from the comfort of your home and bed.Put yourself face to face with want,he said,you'll ask yourself"is this what i used to dread?"
- 练习不幸
“最有安全感的时刻是你的身心都为最糟糕的时刻做好的准备；然而好运降临的时刻，要更加强这种准备来抵抗好运结束。”---塞内卡
塞内卡是尼罗的贴身顾问，享受着不尽的荣华，却建议我们选取一个月中的几天在贫穷中度过。不要吃太饱，穿上你最破烂的衣服，走出你舒适的家，离开你的床。将你自己置身于欲望之中，你再问自己：“这是我所恐惧的吗？”
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It's important to remember that this is an exercise and not a rhetorical device. he doesn't mean "think about"misfortune,he means live it.comfort is the worst kind of slavery because you're always afraid that something or someone will take it away.But if you can not just anticipate but practice misfortune, then chance loses its ability to disrupt your life.
要记住这是一种实践而不是语言修辞，这不是“想想看”不幸，他的意思是生活在不幸中，舒适是一种最糟糕的奴役，因为你会一直害怕，别人或者什么事情会让你一无所有，不然，如果你的运气没了，你将被生活打垮，所以，你必须实践起来。
蒙田创建了一个古老的喝酒游戏，参与者轮流向一副棺材里的僵尸画作举杯并且庆祝“喝吧，快乐的喝吧，当你死之后，你也将是如此模样。”
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Emotions like anxiety and fear have their roots in uncertainty and rarely in experience.Anyone who has made a big bet on themselves knows how much energy both states can consume.The solution is to do something about that ignorance.Make yourself familiar with the things,the worst-case scenarios,that you're afraid of.
practice what you fear,whether a simulation in your mind or in real life.The downside is almost always reversible or transient.
一些诸如焦虑和恐惧都是根植于不确定感和未知，任何人都是在这两种情绪上下了赌注，打赌自己到底有多少可以消耗，解决的方法应该是做一些你并不知道的事情，未知的，你所惧怕的事情，越是将自己置身于惧怕中，越是可以让自己更加的强大。
在你的想象中和实际生活中都练习什么是你所恐惧的，大多数低谷时期都是可以逆转或者是转瞬即逝的。
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- Train perception to Avoid Good and Bad
“choose not to be harmed and you won't feel harmed.Don't feel harmed and you haven't been.”--Marcus Aurelius
The stoics had an exercise called Turning the Obstacle Upside Down.What they meant to do was make it impossible to not practice the art of philosophy.because if you can properly turn a problem upside down,every "bad"becomes a new souce of good.
Suppose for a second that you are trying to help someone and they response by being surly or unwilling to cooperate.Instead of making your life more difficult,the exercise says,they're actually directing you towards new vitues;for example,patience or understanding.Or,the death of someone close to you;a chance to show fortitude.
训练你的感知，去避免非白即黑
“不去选择伤害你就可以不觉得被伤害，不感觉到伤害你就不会被伤害。”
斯多葛派有一个成为将阻碍颠覆的练习，这就是典型的斯多葛哲学的应用，你需要去将之时间，因为加入你可以将问题推到，那么每一个坏事情将变成好事情。
假设一下，你尝试去帮助一个人，却换来的是无理和不情愿合作，按照上面练习所说，他们实际上是赋予你了一项新的美德，比如耐心或者理解，而不是给你生活制造更多的麻烦，或者将死之人靠近你，一个表现不屈不挠的机会。
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Marcus Aurelius described it like this：
“The impediment to action advances action.
What stands in the way becomes the way.”
Marcus Aurelius描述为：
阻碍先于行动，阻碍成为行动之路。
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It should sound familiar because it is the same thinking behind obama's "teachable moments."Right before the election,Joe Klein asked Obama how he'd made his decision to respond to the Reverend Wright scandal.He said something like"when the story broke i realized the best thing to do wasn't damage control,it was to speak to Americans like adults."And what he ended up doing was turning a negative situation into the perfect platform for his landmark speech about race.
这听起来很耳熟，和奥巴马所说的“机会教育”如出一辙，在选举前，Joe Klein问奥巴马，自己在应对赖特牧师丑闻事件做决策的，他说就如这事爆出我意识到最坏的事不是损害控制，应该告诉所有美国人，像个大人一样思考。将消极的事情转变为积极的，这正是他最出彩的一次关于种族演讲所做的事情。
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The common refrain about entrepreneurs is that they take advantage of，even create，opportunities.To the stoic，everything is opportunity.The Reverend Wright scandal,a frustrating case where your help gose unappreciated,the death of a loved one,none of those are"opportunities"in the normal sense of the word.in fact,they are the opposite.they are obstacles.what a stoic dose is turn every obstacle into an opportunity.
创业者在很多克制中受益，甚至是创造机会。对斯多葛哲学来说，每件事都是机会，赖特牧师丑闻事件、当你的热情帮助并未被人接受、爱人之死，其实这些都蕴藏着机会，实际上，他们在反面的，他们是阻碍，但是一个斯多葛信奉者可以将每一个障碍转变为机会。
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3.Remember ----It's All Ephermeral
"Alexander the Great and his mule driver both died and the same thing happened to both."---Marcus Aurelius
Marcus Aurelius wrote to himself a simple and effective reminder to help him regain perspective and stay balanced:
"Run down the list of those who felt intense anger at something: the most
famous,the most unfortunate,the most hated,the most whatever: where is all
that now?smoke,dust,legend....or not even a legend.Think of all the examples.
And how trivial the things we want so passionately are."
- 记住——所有的一切都是转瞬即逝的
“亚历山大帝和他的倔驴都死了，相同的事发生在他们俩身上。”--Marcus Aurelius
Marcus Aurelius 给他自己写了一条简单但却很有效去帮他重获理性和保持平衡的话：
“削弱你感觉极度强烈的情感吧：最著名、最不幸、最厌恶、不论最什么：他们都已成为烟、尘土、
传奇······或者根本不是传奇。想想看把，你所极度渴望热爱的东西，他们多么的一文不值。”
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It is important to note that“passion”here isn't the modern usage we're familiar with as in enthusiasm or caring about something.As Don Robertson explains in his book,when the stoics discuss overcoming 'passion',which they called patheiai,they refer to the irrational,unhealthy and excessive desires and emotions. Anger would be a good example,what is important to rememeber,and this is the crucial bit,they seek to replace them with eupatheiai,such as joy instead of excessive pleasure.
热情这个词对每一个人都很重要，我们都有热情和关心的事情。Don Robertson在他的书里解释，斯多葛学派将克服热情称之为Patheiai，这里包含了不理性的、不健康的、欲望和情感的膨胀。愤怒就是一个很好的例子，请记住这是非常重要的一点，他们将替换掉patheiai称为eupatheiai，比如将极度的开心替换成愉快。
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Returning to the point of the excerise,it's simple:remember how small you are. For that matter,remember how small most everything is.
remember that achievements can be ephemeral, and that your possession of them is for just an instant.
if everything is ephemeral,what dose matter? Right now matters.Being a good person and doing the right thing right now,that's what matters and that's what was important to the stoics.
回到实践上来，其实非常简单：记住你很渺小。就此而言，其实所有的事情都是小事。
记住，成就只是一时的，你所拥有的资产也只是片刻所有。
假如所有的事都是短暂的，那又怎样呢？现在最重要。做一个智慧的人，现在就做立刻做对的事。对斯多葛们重要的事。
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Take Alexander the Great who conquered the known world and had cities named in his honor. This is common knowledge. the stoics would also point out that,once while drunk, Alexander got into a fight with his dearest friend,Cleitus,and accidentally killed him.afterward,he was so despondent that he couldn't eat or drink for three days.Sophists were called from all over Greece to see what they could do about his grief,to no avail.
亚历山大帝战胜了已知世界，并将其以自己的名字命名，这是常识。斯多葛们则会指出，一次喝醉酒之后，亚历山大和自己最亲密的朋友Cleitus一起去打仗，朋友却意外被杀。后来，他非常的伤心以至于无法进食3天，在希腊所有的智者都知道，他的悲伤的白费的。
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In this the mark of a successful life?From a personal standpoint,it matters little if your name is emblazoned on a map if you lose perspective and hurt those around you.
learn from Alexander's mistake.Be humble and honest and aware. This is something you can have every single day of your life. you'll never have to fear someone taking from you or , worse still,it taking over you.
这是一个成功人生的标志吗？从个人立场来看，假如你的名字印在地图上，却伤害身边亲近的人，失去了理智。
从亚历山大的错误中学习，谦虚、诚实、清醒。这是可以在每天都可以运用的，你再也不必害怕有人可以将它拿走，或者更糟糕的是他们将你夺走。
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