Being stuck? It might be your blind spot

You drive to work every day and arrive safely. But one day, your car decides to give up, and you are stuck.

You call a friend to ask if they can pick you up. They ask you to tell them where you are and give directions. But you know what? You can’t give proper directions because you are so used to the route that you can’t recall the number of side streets, bends or landmarks.

Now you are really stuck. Your route to work has become a blind spot: the obvious thing that you can’t see.

The same can happen on another level. The way you respond to people, the way you act out, or the way you react to a certain situation. People around you may see clearly what happens, while you don’t have a clue.

Awareness

Recently, I had a session with a new client who claimed to be a very positive person. However, the questionnaire they filled in for me showed that they were actually quite negative and a real worrier.

One of the ways this came out was in their language. Everything was coming from the darker side, such as “not too difficult” instead of “easy”, “not too bad” instead of “good”, or “better than yesterday” instead of “greatly improved”.

When I pointed out what the client was doing, they were taken aback. They were totally unaware of how negative their language was.

Their way of communicating was a blind spot, and seeing it in the light made it possible to make changes.

The obvious thing about a blind spot is that you may need somebody else to help you find it. Not necessarily to point it out to you in an “I told you” way, but to guide you towards the discovery. When it is your own discovery, you are more likely to grasp it.

Confidence

Blind spots can often undermine confidence and prevent you from making the right decisions, feeling in control or feeling happy.

But you can’t see them. The signs you get are feeling stuck and not knowing how to get out, or knowing that something is not right but not being sure why or how. These are the so-called “niggles”.

If you are stuck, have any niggles and want to discover your blind spots, you could ask trusted friends for honest feedback or speak to a life coach for support.