BlindSpots

When learning to drive we were taught about the “blind spot” just behind our left shoulder.  It is in this blind spot that other vehicles can be traveling without our knowing it, potentially threatening our safety and well being.

We have similar “blind spots” in our daily work and living.  These not-so-obvious threats to our success, safety and well being exist just outside our easy view.  They represent potential “wrecks" in performance and effectiveness, all of which can be avoided with some due diligence on our part.

How can we check for those blind spots in our lives?  

1)  Just as most of us have developed the driving habit of glancing quickly and frequently back over the left shoulder, we can train ourselves through habit to regularly pause and reflect on what we’re doing, why we’re doing it, and how we might do it better.

2)  Rely on trusted others (auxiliary mirrors) to provide us with feedback on what they see us doing, why it appears we’re doing it, and how we might do it better.

Checking our blind spots really boils down to practicing a continuous improvement version of “double vision” - regularly taking a look at ourselves in a 360 sort of way, and asking trusted others for their 360 view of us.

That checking-the-blind-spot process is never done (in driving or in living). 

It requires persistent attention, 

as often as we’re driving down the road, 

as often as we're living life.