training for emergencies

I was very surprised when I descended Mt Kinabalu to see that the last 100 m or so was really nothing that I imagined when I climbed. I guess it was about 5:30 AM or so when I stood at the same spot, dark, cold, out of breath, the summit was nowhere to be seen, Where was I ? Was it still much to climb ? How could I survive the cold, wind, and breathlessness? When I descended of course the sun shone, much warmer, I could clearly see where was I, more relaxed, etc. But I was convinced that the fact that I was rather blind on the ascending made the difference. I am sure if I had to do that again I would be more relax. Yes the wind would still be blowing hard, it would still be cold and I would likely be breathless. But the fact that I know where I am would make a difference. 

I guess this is also the principle of training for emergency situations like fire fighting or helicopter under water escape training. The sense of been there and done that. If we knew the steps to follow, the expected things to happen we should be calmer. Basically we said we had been there, we knew what to expect and we should be OK.

I wonder if we could deliberately train ourselves to handle life crisis such as loss of jobs, loss of spouse etc. I get it that such trainings are no fun, but in a sense they have valuable purposes. Basically they act like vaccinations. We deliberately introduce weaken germ into our body so our antibodies would be ready when the real thing does enter or system. Like other emergency trainings we wouldn't expect to use the skill at all as we do not want to be in that situation, but in case it happened we should be in better position to be.