This reminds me of two separate Stoic mental practices -- though I should point out that I do neither of them habitually and they have no scientific studies measuring efficacy or life improvement or anything :-)

The first, negative visualization, is aimed at bringing more satisfaction to one's life. Quoting from Stoic Psychological Tactics Part One:

Negative visualization is the single most powerful tool in the stoic toolbox. In the simplest form it’s spending time visualizing loosing the things you value most. In modern times think along the lines of loosing your job, having your car stolen or the death of a loved one.... To a stoic, not only is the glass half full, he also has a glass (it could get stolen or broken) and to top things of it’s a glass and not even a ceramic pot. It doesn’t give a peculiar taste to the liquid inside and you can even enjoy the color of the liquid! What a wondrous thing this glass is that we take for granted.

The second tactic I'm reminded of is the stoic version of meditation. Quoting from Stoic Psychological Tactics Part Five:

Seneca advises us to periodically meditate on the events in our daily lives, how we responded to them and how we -in accordance with Stoic principles- should have responded in stead. It’s very simple actually, before you go to sleep lay there for a moment (or kneel beside your bed if you prefer) and think about how your day was. This type of meditation is completely unlike the meditation of a Zen Buddhist. Where a Zen Buddhist sits still for extended periods of time trying to think of just one thing, calming his mind and focusing on his breath or a koan a Stoic will be all over the place with his mind. Focusing on all the events of the day and reliving them. Total chaos if you ask a Zen Buddhist, functional if you ask a Stoic.

The thing that worries me about these techniques is that they seem to be aimed at making a person satisfied with their environment but very focused on changing their mental and behavioral patterns. This runs counter to my general understanding that people's environments are generally easier to change and have much larger impacts on behavior than are generally recognized. It also makes me worry that it might be part of a memetic "person retention strategy" which could be the basis of people becoming life long stoics even if it wasn't truly nourishing.

In any case, the thing I was trying to illustrate was that we can use imaginary comparisons to guide our expectations and emotions, people have known the general trick for many centuries, and it seems like a generally useful principle for designing similar practices which could actually be tested for efficacy :-)