A passage from Epictetus

Epictetus, Discourses I.30

When you are going to any act, remind yourself what the act is. For if you are going to bathe, represent to yourself the things which usually happen in the bath: some persons splash the water, some push, some use abusive language, and others steal. And thus you will more securely go about the act, if you say to yourself, I am now going to bathe, and to keep my mind in a state conformable to nature.
Epictetus·Discourses·I.30·trans. George Long
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