I don’t know how to phrase it best so it fits here, but I feel it does, because it complicates my life regularly and therefore is pretty major:
Not sticking to very beneficial routines that I know to be highly useful for my overall functionality in the short term and neccessary in the long term.
I know that I am happier and better-functioning when I regularly make journal entries and meditate. I am more productive at work, and I have more energy in my free time for other projects. Yet, I’m in a cycle where, when everything is going very well, I neglect both activities. Everything continues to go well for a while, then I get unbalanced, less energetic and overall less happy and productive, and only then do I remember that I already know what I can do to improve my situation.
For example, I neglected journal-writing and meditation in the past three month, which was a critical time because this left me with little energy to learn for a test (I’m currently doing a second M.Sc. to improve my chances of entering the economic sector I’m especially interested in). It won’t have any unalterable consequences yet—if I fail on Friday, I can repeat the test next year, without having to study longer than intended—but it will make things more difficult and time-intensive next year, because I will have to prepare for the repeat tests as well as the tests scheduled for next semester. And I fear it’s only a matter of time till this leads to bigger consequences (Seriously affecting job performance, for example).
This describes really well how I feel about the influence of epistemic rationality improvements in my life. They are often small and subtle enough that it is easy to overlook their importance in the short term. In the longer term the difference in clarity of thought between present me and past me is striking based on surviving material. It is only when doing this comparison that many of the differences actually become intelligible.
I don’t know how to phrase it best so it fits here, but I feel it does, because it complicates my life regularly and therefore is pretty major: Not sticking to very beneficial routines that I know to be highly useful for my overall functionality in the short term and neccessary in the long term.
I know that I am happier and better-functioning when I regularly make journal entries and meditate. I am more productive at work, and I have more energy in my free time for other projects. Yet, I’m in a cycle where, when everything is going very well, I neglect both activities. Everything continues to go well for a while, then I get unbalanced, less energetic and overall less happy and productive, and only then do I remember that I already know what I can do to improve my situation.
For example, I neglected journal-writing and meditation in the past three month, which was a critical time because this left me with little energy to learn for a test (I’m currently doing a second M.Sc. to improve my chances of entering the economic sector I’m especially interested in). It won’t have any unalterable consequences yet—if I fail on Friday, I can repeat the test next year, without having to study longer than intended—but it will make things more difficult and time-intensive next year, because I will have to prepare for the repeat tests as well as the tests scheduled for next semester. And I fear it’s only a matter of time till this leads to bigger consequences (Seriously affecting job performance, for example).
This describes really well how I feel about the influence of epistemic rationality improvements in my life. They are often small and subtle enough that it is easy to overlook their importance in the short term. In the longer term the difference in clarity of thought between present me and past me is striking based on surviving material. It is only when doing this comparison that many of the differences actually become intelligible.