Home base feeling

The home base feeling is when you are comfortable enough with what’s going on that the idea of embarking on a new quest sparks interest rather than dread.

Examples:

• Technology. This blog is built using Jekyll and Liquid templates. I had always felt like I was fighting it and tip-toeing around any changes. I’d learned bits and pieces over the years. Over the last few days, I learned enough about collections, categories, tags, and filters to design the thing I wanted using the idioms of the framework. Previously, I had jerry rigged a horrible mess on top to hack things together. My config could probably be way more idiomatic, and I certainly could learn way more about the system (I probably went from 0.5% to 1.0% understanding). But I now have a home base feeling that I know enough of the foundations to feel interest, rather than trepidation, at trying something new.

• Travel. When I go somewhere new, there’s a home base feeling once, after a day or two, I get my basic needs covered: sleeping, eating, finding bathrooms, driving and parking or taking public transport, and communicating somehow with strangers. Each step is huge. For example, going to a second restaurant rather than repeating the first, or buying from an open-air market, both unlock deeper home base feelings. For each new thing, it probably takes me at least two instances before I feel comfortable; sleeping two nights or in two places, taking two bus rides, etc. In this case, it’s more literally establishing a home base, but it can also be figurative in the sense of adapting to a city and culture.

Questions: Does the extent needed to get this feeling vary per person? (Probably.) Is there anyone who feels comfortable without this at all?