Continuing on our story of Mr C from the previous edition.

Today,

Let’s deep dive into understanding the concept of blind spots along with low self-awareness, and the havoc they can create in one’s life, impacting our career and relationships.

What is a blind spot?

We all have blind spots and often times these very blind spots are the real culprits, who dictate, and lead us to do, act or indulge in a behavior on a repeated basis creating patterns.

And in the external world, you will find almost everyone well aware of your blind spots, except “you”.

The term Blind spots was first coined in the JOHARI window, which still stands today as a popular model used to understand the relationship we hold with ourselves and with others. It was created by psychologists Joseph Luft (1916–2014) and Harrington Ingham (1916–1995) in 1955. Luft and Ingham called their Johari Window model ‘Johari’ after combining their first names, Joe and Harrington.

The Blind spot in this given model is an area where our Self is known to “others” but remains unknown to the self.

This is that part of our personality, even though a critical part of our self, we remain completely unaware of it, and due to the unawareness tend to repeat the pattern of behaviors in an ongoing manner.

A very common expression for those completely unaware of their behaviour often ends up listening to comments or feedback like

” Do you even realise how you behaved last night?”

OR

Do you know what you’re popularly known as behind your back?

Now, since we have been able to understand a little bit of the concept and what it entails, this brings us to a key question, which is, how do we identify our blind spots in the first place and then how do we modify them for our betterment?

Identifying Blind spots begins from looking inward, holding a deep and thorough understanding of our inner self; in short, it comes from being more self-aware!

We may spend a considerable amount of time understanding the world around us, but what we also need to pay attention to is that we need to understand the world within us because our mental models are a blend of our inner and outer world. Within the two, our inner world plays a very significant role in shaping our approach and thought process, profoundly influencing the way we attempt to understand the outside world.

Next time, whenever you find yourself receiving feedback on your blind spots, and you find it equally confusing to accept it, due to your own unawareness of it.

Consider doing the following to increase one’s self-awareness.

1. Always Reflect, set aside time (Me–time) for yourself to reflect on what you experience when you encounter good or bad situations.
2. Ask Why? When you understand the way you felt, ask why you felt that way.
3. If you do not get a convincing answer the first time, go ahead and ask the same (WHY) 3 times more, and you will get immense clarity as to why you felt the way you felt, opening up new insights to you about your own self.
4. Also, remember, most of our experience is buried in the past, meaning what we sometimes end up feeling today has a deep connection to a past event of our own, and it could be anything, entailing both good and bad experiences.
5. Make a note, what we lack today has its roots in something which we seek, never had or had given up in the past.

Learning about yourself is and will always be the first step towards a better you, whomever you might be.

The more you are self-aware, the easier it will be for you to manage, govern and control yourself, and it will be a lot easier to take charge of the outside world.

Just like how (Self-defense) is considered the best form of secure defense mechanism, so is self-awareness which shields you from endless confusions, pain, misery, incorrect approaches, wrong perceptions and not to forget your very own blind spots!

To get to learn and experience it, here’s a small grid, you can apply this simple tool to any aspect of your Life and become more self-aware.

Against each Life aspect, add your response in each column based on your life. What is listed here is an example; you can delete, change and add your own aspect to the list.

Towards the end, carefully evaluate the grid, and you will get a holistic picture of your own needs and wants.

This activity is just the beginning as you venture into your inner world.

To learn more, connect with me here

Warmly,

Mehnaz Amjad.