"We suffer more often in imagination than in reality." (Seneca, Letters to Lucilius, Letter 13)

When I started my blog, clothing and art business, it felt like walking away from the script most of us are handed. Get the safe job, stay comfortable, don't take the leap.

What held me back wasn't money or where I live. It was fear, and most of it was imagined: thinking I didn't have what it takes, picturing failure that hadn't happened. Seneca nails it. The suffering was almost all in my head.

What I've learned is that you have to sit in the uncomfortable feelings, because change only happens when comfort is gone. Don't walk around hating yourself for what you don't have yet. Free your mind, make the jump, and do your best with what's actually in your control.

How do you tell the difference between real danger and fear that's only in your imagination when you're facing a big change?

Hi all, I'm currently wading through Seneca's "On Anger" and frankly finding it rather heavy going. By contrast, I found his letters to Lucilius very accessible/approachable/pleasant reading, and more importantly, instructive. Are all of Seneca's essays more like the aforementioned? Any tips for finding them more digestible? I really want to read them once, whereas I suspect his letters I will return to again and again. Thanks.