How to Get Unstuck: Discover Your Blind Spots!

Are you feeling stuck in a loop, facing the same frustrating outcomes in your personal or professional life? It might be time to explore and uncover your blind spots.

My interest in blind spots began with Rainer Maria Rilke’s Letters to a Young Poet, which I first read in college. The Prussian poet noted, “If we think of an individual’s existence as a larger or smaller room, it appears evident that most people come to know only a corner of their room, a place by the window, a strip of floor on which they walk up and down.”

This observation about human nature resonates deeply. We are all creatures of habit, finding comfort and security in our routines and familiar paths. However, this apparent security is often a false one. We rarely recognize our blind spots until we are trapped in a repetitive cycle, make a mistake, or face a crisis. It is only in these moments that we are compelled to assess the consequences and reflect what we’ve missed.

So, how can we uncover our blind spots to foster growth without waiting for another crisis?

Recently, this topic came up during conversations with friends and colleagues. I shared some insights I’ve gained over time, and I welcome any perspectives from blind spots experts who want to weigh in.

First, we all have a physiological blind spot, which is an area in our visual field known as the optic disc. This blind spot exists because the optic disc lacks light-detecting photoreceptors, meaning that vision cannot be detected in this region.

Our next common blind spot is a spatial one: it’s the part of the road that we cannot see when driving, located behind and slightly to one side of the car. To switch lanes safely, we need to turn our head to check for any vehicles in that blind spot.

Robert Grudin, the author of Time and The Art of Living, asserted that, “In the same ways that our eyes have blind spots in space, our eyes also have blind spots in time, areas of time which we habitually or congenitally ignore.”

To build on the writer’s insights, these temporal blind spots may be due to our perception of time, which is influenced by how our role models — parents, teachers, mentors — view and spend their time. Our innate cognitive and neurological setup may also contribute to these blind spots.

Here’s one example. If we subscribe to Benjamin Franklin’s philosophy that we should not squander time and if we grow up viewing time through a lens of achievement, we become habitually focused on doing rather than being. The reality is that life is not solely about action; it also requires moments of stillness, reflection, and recalibration. Consequently, we may struggle with simply being present. Our blind spot is that our lives need both time for action and time for repose.

Another example of temporal blindness is staying stuck in the past or jumping into the future—without recognizing that the present is a gift to yourself.

Tasha Eurich, in her thought-provoking book Insight, articulated the following three common blind spots that we all experience.

Consider knowledge blindness. According to Eurich, “Our assessments of our abilities in particular situations are shaped more by our overall self-beliefs and inherent skills than by our actual performance.”

In other words, knowledge blindness refers to an inaccurate perception of our abilities, where our self-beliefs and perceived skills do not align with our actual performance.

For example, first-time entrepreneurs often envision their venture’s success based on their revolutionary product idea. However, they may overestimate—or, in some cases, may not even be aware of—essential founder skills needed to lead their team to success. These skills include self-management, time management, communication, relationship management, project management, crisis management, and financial management.

Serial entrepreneurs also suffer from knowledge blindness by assuming that past success and winning strategies can be easily replicated, failing to perform due diligence—including learning essential new skills—for their next venture.

Eurich also pointed out emotional blindness. We often make decisions based on our emotions without realizing it. Research has shown that emotions play a significant role in decision-making. Yet, while we frequently emphasize making rational choices based on data gathering, we often fail to recognize the underlying influence of our emotions.

Not long ago, I spoke with an executive I met through a mutual connection. He took pride in being a “rational thinker” and attributed his professional successes to his data-driven approach to problem-solving. However, during the same conversation, he dismissed his sibling’s extensive health research, saying, “I don’t believe in all that alternative health crap.” This dismissal highlighted a form of emotional blindness: his data-driven mindset applied only to his professional domain, not to his personal life. His rejection of his sibling’s research, without reviewing the information objectively, revealed that his “rational approach” was overshadowed by emotional bias.

Lastly, Eurich mentioned behavior blindness, which is the inability to see our own behavior clearly because we are inside our physical selves and cannot perceive ourselves as others do. Eurich concluded that behavior blindness is, “one of the things that most of us experience far more often than we realize.”

A clear example of this blind spot occurs during a speech or presentation. Without the aid of a recorded video, we cannot view ourselves from an external perspective, making it difficult to gauge how we come across to others.

How can we apply these insights to our personal and professional lives?

If you find yourself stuck on a particular issue—such as repeatedly pursuing the next “logical” job that provides financial security but leaves you spiritually unfulfilled—or if you keep experiencing the same undesired outcomes despite your efforts, it might be beneficial to allocate time for reflection. Identifying specific blind spots that are adversely affecting your life can lead to meaningful changes.

Remember Rilke’s observation about how we all tend to walk the same strip in a room. I took his insight to heart. During college, I noticed that by always taking the shortest route from my dorm to the library, I began to overlook my surroundings. When a building was demolished, I realized I couldn’t even recall what had been there before. I also discovered that sticking to the same path meant missing out on other parts of the campus, including areas shaded by ancient trees and tranquil streets lined with houses featuring symmetrical facades, gabled roofs, and decorative moldings from the early 18th and 19th centuries—architecture I find visually pleasing. This realization prompted me to explore new paths and become more familiar with different corners of my school and the world around me.

Some ideas to help discover your blind spots:

Create a new habit and opportunities for learning. Step out of your default routine. We lose the ability to see things with “fresh eyes” when we stay on the same path. Look up. Look around. Notice something new. Put on your Discovery hat, embrace inspiration, and let new insights emerge.

Next, observe and track your behavior patterns. This includes monitoring both your actions and reactions. Take note of the results of your knee-jerk reactions versus thoughtful responses. Determine if there’s a pattern in challenging situations by recognizing any recurring circumstances or situations that you find difficult.

Identify and study your values and assumptions. Understand how your internal beliefs and self-talk drive your actions.

Finally, find opportunities for growth and seek feedback. Explore ways to expand your perspective and ask others for feedback on how you come across.

In sum, blind spots are a part of our landscape as we journey through life. Allocating time to reflect and discover blind spots that may be adversely affecting our lives can lead to more self-awareness and personal growth. Which action can you take to gain clarity and uncover new ways to address your challenges?

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Sources:
Letters to a Young Poet – Rainer Maria Rilke
Time and the Art of Living – Robert Grudin
Insight – Tasha Eurich
Keltner D, Lerner JS.( 2010). Emotion. In The Handbook of social psychology, ed. DT Gilbert, ST Fiske, G Lindzey, pp. 317-52. New York, NY: Wiley.
Damasio, A.R. (1990). Individuals with sociopathic behavior caused by frontal damage fail to respond autonomically to social stimuli”. Behavioural brain research, 41, 81-94.

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