Also about banking.
A few years ago I shared a bank account with a financially irresponsible partner. After we (messily) broke up, I balanced the account but never got around to closing it. For years it was in the back of my mind that she might have taken it overdrawn by some tiny but cascading amount, plunging me into credit blacklists or forcing me to have to deal with her again.
Late last year I decided to put my mind to rest, so one lunchtime, I girded my loins, wandered over to a nearby branch of the bank and asked about the state of the account, which had been blissfully inactive for three years. Since then I haven't really been afraid of checking reality for what I fear is true.
On a related note, many of my personal development stories that end in "I don't worry about X any more" usually involve experiencing some sort of especially horrible example of X to which all lesser X-instances pale in comparison. We've discussed artificially inducing this at the London meetups, (referred to as "terror therapy" or "extreme CoZE"), but the idea of subjecting oneself to traumatic experiences in domains of existing discomfort doesn't seem to be a popular one.
Huh. Horrible trauma has the opposite effect on me; it makes my aversions stronger. CoZE's gradual approach has worked better for me.
This may be a case of Typical Mind Fallacy. I've been thinking recently about how my (fairly pedestrian) traumatic experiences are instrumentally useful as motivation, in spite of being billed as "unhealthy" to dwell upon. I'm starting to get the impression that my reaction is somewhat atypical.
On the plus side, this could mean I have an amazing resource for motivation inaccessible to others. On the minus side, I may have to subject myself to horrible experiences in order to make it work.
The term to google here is post-traumatic growth.
Many traditional initiation rituals, which tend to be designed to teach you a lesson you won't forget, are quite traumatic. I'd like to believe the trauma serves a purpose beyond hazing and reinforcement of hierarchy, although I do not know it does.
I get that feeling whenever I hit a milestone in something: if I run a couple miles further than I had previously, if I understand something that was opaque before, if I am able to do something that I couldn't before, I get this "woo hoo!" feeling that I associate with levelling up.
Same here. This feeling is especially prevalent for me in weightlifting--my strength/dexterity/stamina attribute is increasing! Too many RPGs played as a kid.
I've found gymnastics skills are a great complement to lifting in this regard. When lifting is getting mundane and/or stalling you still have physical skills you can level up.
I just figured out how to use the local banking system and I will be able for the first time to pay my rent from my actual salary received in this country (as opposed to savings from my previous life). Also I always hated shopping for groceries and now I can do it without much pain, because I've found a way that works for me. As I reflect on this, an expression comes to my mind: "leveling up." I don't have the same problems any more which I used to have. I grow and face new challenges.
Did you, fellow rationalists and transhumanists, ever have that feeling? Any particular accomplishments, big or small, that made you feel you're advancing? No matter fast or slow, in big steps or tiny, but firmly forward!?
I'm thrilled to read your stories!