We have competing feelings in our minds, and sometimes those feelings are stronger than our "rational sides". Facing our fears might be a good exercise. Facing legitimate fears (fears where the danger is real) might be useful too, but I'm specifically thinking about irrational fears.
Fear of "monsters" a la Bloody Mary in the mirror would be a good one. (Do it).
Fear of bad luck or divine retribution. (Break a mirror, step on a crack, say the forbidden thing).
Fear of the dark in your own house. (Walk around in the dark, make it fun).
Fear of social situations. (Purposefully put yourself in situations you are uncomfortable in but that won't hurt you).
Fear of heights (Safely).
Fear of failure. (Fail at something and make no excuses).
The goal of this exercise would be to acclimate yourself to these strong emotions so that they don't override your other instincts/thinking when it is important. Part of the challenge might be identifying fears you are unaware of.
Fear of failure. (Fail at something and make no excuses).
This reminds me of an idea to try failing on purpose to overcome this.
Last night, here in Portland (OR), some friends and I got together to try to start Rationality Dojo. We talked about it for a while and came up with exactly 4 exercises that we could readily practice:
We also had a whole bunch of semi-formed ideas about selecting a target (happiness, health) and optimizing it a month at a time. Starting a dojo, in a time before organized martial arts, was surely incredibly difficult. I hope we can accrete exercises rather than require a single sensei to invent the majority of the discipline. So I've added a category to the wiki, and I'm asking here. Do you have ideas or refinements for exercises to fit within rationality dojo?