Expose yourself to hardship.

Even when life’s easy, seek out hardship. It keeps you grounded.

Hard things are good for you.

Tools like cold plunges, learning from scratch, or wrestling with unfamiliar problems—they put us back in the beginner’s seat, where humility lives.

When we reach levels of success—a new plane of existence where things are easier—we can forget how hard things once were.

Maybe you started renting a studio with no family support—and none that was ever going to come to you. Maybe buying a $10 Chipotle burrito felt stressful when you were used to eating rice and beans.

And maybe now you go out to eat $40-100 meals a few times a week—forgetting how hard and scary it once was to just eat a meal out.

Remembering where we came from is a spiritual armor. It shields us from delusions of grandeur and self-importance.

Remembering through hardship humanizes us. We can remember that others are suffering, and it can spur us into action.

Of course, there are some sufferings that cannot be simulated. We could choose to live on the streets to know what it's like to be homeless, but it is not the same. Since we have an escape—an easy out to get a home again or employment—we are in a fundamentally different position than the homeless. Part of the suffering of homelessness is the knowing that you may never get out.

Even if you can't simulate all hardship, we must use it to ground us. Otherwise, we risk losing perspective.