4 signs you’re getting bitten by your blind spots (and what to do about it)

How many of these ring true for you? 

1. Your colleague, employee, friend, partner and/or kid (take your pick) is driving you batcrap crazy
2. Your anger is surging and you’re seething.  It feels like you could break a tooth from grinding your teeth in frustration so much.
3. You’re afraid you’re going to draw blood from continuously biting your tongue. There’s so much you want to say but you hold back.
4. You’re banging your head against the wall with a perplexing problem because you find yourself doing the same ol’ same ol’ approach over and over and over again.  And it’s not working.

They’re all telling sign that your blind spots are biting you.

Blind spots are made up from our perspective.  And our perspective is based on our personality, our culture, our age, stage of life we’re in etc.

Our perspective is the ruler that we measure ‘normal’ from – what we see as natural, right and comfortable.

Our perspective directs where our light shines.  We place our focus on what has meaning to us.  Annnnd we avoid what feels uncomfortable, awkward or ‘foreign.’  Those are our dark spots, areas where the sun don’t shine aka our blind spots.

Our perspective determines where we look, where we focus.  For example are you more geared to looking inward, towards the inner world of reflection or do you tend to look outside, to the outer world of action? (These are two of my Life Lenses®, the Stop Life Lens® and the Go Life Lens®.)

Perspective is great; your perspective should be celebrated.  It’s what makes you you.

It’s your unique radar.  It focuses your attention and your priorities.

Annnnd all of our perspectives come with blind spots.  You know you’re facing a blind spot when you’re facing one of the scenarios above. 

But what’s the big deal?  Why do we need to be aware of our blindspots?  Here are four key reasons:

1. Hidden assumptions; blindspots are sneaky fellows.  They keep you in the dark about the assumptions you’re making.
2. Brain betrayal; we know blindspots are rearing their hidden heads when we feel awkward and uncomfortable in a situation.  That’s because our brains betray us during conflict and/or discomfort.  Out of self-preservation, our brains tend to scream at us like a 2 year old wild child …. Not exactly prime real estate for good communication.
3. Number Uno; our blindspots lie to us, telling us there’s only one way forward. Remember banging your head against the wall and the feeling of going around in circles?  Instead of helping us see there are lots of ways to progress through discomfort our blindspots make us see only one way, and it’s almost always a way that’s not working. 
4. Route 66; to make matters worse, not only do our brains lie to us and loudly pronounce there’s only one way forward (or backward in retreat), that way tends to be MWOTH (my way or the highway). 

So what’s an overwhelmed human to do?  Next week I’ll give you four easy peasy steps with examples of how you can use them. 

Psssst I’ll include a bonus, where I relate each step to affecting social change … you know, that issue that’s uber important to you and you’re working away on. I’ll also throw in a sweet little infographic I’m working on to help it all make sense.