What Are Blind Spots?

Have you ever felt like your business, career or life was on autopilot? You know those scenarios or cycles you are continually experiencing in your life?

• The boyfriend who you continually drop everything for, give everything you have and then walks out on you…
• The work colleagues who you share your great ideas with and then get the promotion you wanted with your ideas (yes – they didn’t acknowledge you)…
• The way you get all excited about starting a new project, however don’t make time to finish what you started…
• Spending more money in your life than you earn…
• Making excuses for yourself.

You get the picture! In this post, I will discuss –

• What is a Blind Spot?
• Why Uncover Blind Spots?
• Linking the Johari Window to Blind Spots,
• Are there any Blind Spots in Your Life?
• Meeting Blind Spots.

Let’s get started…

What is a Blind Spot?

There are a number of definitions on blind spots, including one’s related to vision –

• “the point of entry of the optic nerve on the retina, insensitive to light” and “an area where a person’s view is obstructed” ~ Google
• “the small circular area at the back of the retina where the optic nerve enters the eyeball and which is devoid of rods and cones and is not sensitive to light” ~ Merriam-Webster
• “an area that you are not able to see, especially the part of a road you cannot see when you are driving, behind and slightly to one side of the car” ~ Cambridge Dictionaries Online
• “an area where a person’s view is obstructed” ~ Oxford Dictionaries

And then there are also definitions of blind spots related to personal and professional development (which are the ones I often focus on in coaching, self-compassion and mindfulness) –

• “a subject that you find very difficult to understand at all, sometimes because you are not willing to try” ~ Cambridge Dictionaries Online
• “a subject that you do not understand well, often because you do not want to know or admit the truth about it” ~ MacMillan Dictionary
• “an area where a person lacks understanding or impartiality” ~ Oxford Dictionaries
• “a tendency to ignore something especially because it is difficult or unpleasant” ~ Merriam-Webster

 

Why Uncover Blind Spots?

Why is it important to uncover blind spots? There are a number of reasons, however a main one is it increases self-awareness and helps live in greater alignment with who we are meant to be, so we can make our difference in the world and live our own purpose whole-heartedly.

Also, before we start worrying about if we have a blind spot or not, the majority of us do, so don’t worry you are not alone! Blind spots can also be linked to protecting your self.

Linking the Johari Window Relate to Blind Spots

The Johari Window is the work of two American Psychologists – Joseph Luft and Harry Ingham. It is a tool that can be used for understanding ourselves and others better. As you can see by the following diagram the Johari Window has four ‘panes’ and is based on the principle that all things about ourselves exist to be known.

The four ‘panes’ of the Johari Window are –

1. The Arena –

The Arena – where information is known to ourself and also known to others. There is shared knowledge on the basis of our relationship with other people. The arena increases in size as the level of individual-individual, individual-group, trust and communication increases.

2. The Facade or Mask –

The Facade or Mask – where information is known to self, but not known to others. This information can include feelings, opinions, prejudices and past history. There are many reasons why people choose to keep a mask on – including fear of rejection, unworthiness etc. If this pane is big in our lives, it is said we can struggle to have truly open and meaningful relationships.

3. The Blind Spot –

The Blind Spot – where information is known to others, however we do not know about ourselves. This information can be in the form of body language, habits, mannerisms, tone of voice etc. Our blind spots are the things that we are not aware of when we are communicating to other people. This can be challenging for individuals as it involves exposing weaknesses and imperfections (i.e. vulnerabilities). The ‘blind spot’ can also be exploited by other people.

4. The Unknown –

The Unknown (subconscious or unconscious) – where information is not known to ourself or other people. Some of this material may be so far below the surface that we may not be aware of it. Other information may be below the surface of awareness to both ourselves and others, however can be made public in a conversation or feedback. This information may include unrealised potential, past memories etc.

The boundaries of each of the panes of the Johari Window are flexible – they can enlarge or reduce depending on the amount of self awareness and feedback one gives or receives.

What is the Ideal Window?

Personally, I think it depends on the relationship and how safe and accepted we feel. In a significant relationship where trust and boundaries are in place, a window with a large Arena, and small Blind Spot, Mask or Unknown would be common.

A person with a large Arena would be relatively easy for other people to interact with and understand, which is turn would make for a more authentic and honest relationship. However if the trust and authenticity is not there, it would be common to have an Arena which is smaller.

Are there Any Blind Spots in Your Life?

What is continually happening in your life? Is there a situation that is hurtful or challenging to your happiness and wellbeing? Maybe you regularly feel anxious, overwhelmed, insecure, frustrated, insecure or shame?

Or are there any behaviours or experiences that happen repetitively in your career, productivity, health, money, food, relationships, love life or physical health?

What things do you find difficult to be, do or say as a leader? Still not sure? Some examples of blind spots include –

• Continually running late for appointments.
• Valuing being right over being effective.
• Saying “yes” to people in your life, when you would really like to say “no”.
• You don’t see or realise the impact you have on other people.
• Becoming impatient when the changes in your life are not happening as fast as you would like.
• Not standing up for yourself in conversations as you don’t like conflict.
• Accomplishing something you really want, however then throwing it all away as you think you don’t deserve it.
• Settling for less than what you really want in your life because you think you are not worth it.

Meeting Blind Spots…

As we start seeing our blind spots, we may have a tendency to blame other people (and fall in to a disempowered mindset) and think “Poor me, why do all of these things continually happen to me?”

However, as hard as it may be or sound, the only thing those scenarios have in common… is YOU, your story and something you don’t see – a blind spot or the unknown.

This is why we all need courage to meet, see and transform our blind spots. When we start to shine the light on them, we can start to change our behaviour, align with who we are and realise the stories we have been telling ourselves are simply not true.

We can start to realise we transition to being the creator of our wild and precious life.

We can start to take responsibility for your life and give ourselves permission to start transforming our dreams in to reality.

We can start to develop trust in ourselves and realise that we are worthy of love, connection and belonging.

Each day we can start to take small steps towards our dreams and one day we realise those distant dreams are actually here now.

Over to You…

I hope this post has given you some more insight in to blind spots and how they could be showing up in your life, so you can align with who you truly are.

If you are ready to reclaim your courage and take the next step towards freedom and opening your heart, why not join our Toolkit?