All my life, I've had a problem. When things start going really good for me, and I think my life is wonderful, something incredibly bad happens to me. These bad things are, in retrospect, usually my own fault. I don't really comprehend that at the time. This breaks me into reality check mode, and I start to learn from it. I've noticed this behavior pattern even in my Multiverser character. John the Player is learning lessons from his character's mistakes. I just felt like waxing philosophical for a moment.
Gaming has definitely been educational about myself and other things, and also cathartic as in getting my emotions out, and dealt with.
I suspect this is the case for many people, and that those who don't as you do, learn from their characters should consider learning some more self-awareness.
Eric
Ya know something else? Recently, MJ rolled against my skill for something. I failed the skill check. I was thinking in the back of my mind "There's no way I could fail to do that." But then I started thinking. Yes, I've done this thing in practice, but I've never done it in real life. (I don't want to say what IT was) After a thought about it for a while, it wasn't that MJ didn't know how good I am, it was that I don't know if I could really do what I said. Waxing philosophical again.