By banishing all unnecessary forms of gratification from his life, he reduced the number of things he needed to have in order to be content, and the number of things he could lose that would ruin his day. If we find that certain desire-based dependencies are maladaptive or cause us to act against our values, we can use the practice of asceticism, or voluntary discomfort, to intentionally deprive ourselves of some desired and attainable object. The practice has been used by some to serve as self-punishment, which has led some to quickly write it off.
