So practice this right away: when something looks bad to you, tell yourself, "You're just an appearance. You're not the real thing." Then test it using your rules. Start with the most important rule: does this involve something I control, or something I don't? If it's something beyond your control, be ready to say, "This has nothing to do with me."
Seek at once, therefore, to be able to say to every unpleasing semblance, "You are but a semblance and by no means the real thing." And then examine it by those rules which you have; and first and chiefly by this: whether it concerns the things which are within our own power or those which are not; and if it concerns anything beyond our power, be prepared to say that it is nothing to you.