n0 > I can’t think of anything outside the Yeshiva that would help one be more mindful. Can you?
yes, hard facts. Getting low grade on SAT/LSAT/GRE, getting rejected at job interview, effort to get to the train on time very day, fired from a job for being late or rude to customers, hard (mental) work required to either do a job or come up with something new – all of that might give a person objective feedback and impetus to change. I am not saying that this cannot be learned in yeshiva, but I think general educational trend is “lake wabegon” where “everyone is above average”. And I am not saying that everyone will learn from school of hard knocks – some might simply blame anti-semites for their problems, as the Mishna says – not every socher becomes chacham.
Just a personal illustration. I thought I am reasonably polite to people at work, until I had a colleague (who himself trained himself from a lowly background) who would know by name, say hello first, and cheer up every guard and other invisible people … I hope I learned something from that.