The change in your basis of comparison is probably quite common, and is probably part of the cause for the Dunning Kruger effect...

...a cognitive bias in which unskilled people make poor decisions and reach erroneous conclusions, but their incompetence denies them the metacognitive ability to recognize their mistakes. The unskilled therefore suffer from illusory superiority, rating their ability as above average, much higher than it actually is, while the highly skilled underrate their own abilities, suffering from illusory inferiority.

It is worth pointing out that the effect is more dramatic and common in Americans relative to Europeans and actually appears to be reversed in people from East Asia. In other words: culture matters, and it wouldn't surprise me if outlier-types (who consciously self modify) can exaggerate, reverse, or correct for the effect by exposing themselves to some kind of reminders, training, and/or social context.