Have you ever used the flashlight function on your phone to search for…….your phone?
Or my personal favourite,… have you ever spent time searching for your sunglasses when they’ve been sitting on top of your head?
You, me, and the Queen of England, …….we’ve all done this.
Sometimes you can’t see (or hear) what’s right in front of you. Opportunities. People. Objects. Often it’s something you’re searching for, but you just don’t see it. You don’t even register.
Why is this?
It’s your mental blind spot, and it once again comes down to your conditioning, your perceptions, and your beliefs.
You’ve heard the saying, “Seeing is Believing,” but when it comes to these mental blind spots, it has more to do with believing than seeing.
Beliefs are powerful. They limit what you can see, and more importantly, they influence that which you cannot see.
Take opportunity as an example. An opportunity doesn’t always present itself in a gift-wrapped box with a beautiful ribbon. Quite the opposite actually. Opportunity so often comes dressed in overalls and looks like a lot of hard work. Most people avoid hard work, and as a result, most people miss opportunity.
If you don’t believe the opportunity is sitting in front of you, then you will not see it.
If the opportunity doesn’t take the form or shape that you expected, then you will never see it.
It doesn’t matter whether we are talking about business or relationships, every human experience you have lived through is stored in your unconscious mind. These experiences shape what you believe. What you believe, is projected through your own eyes onto the world in front of you.
So how do you hack this mental blind spot? What would you be able to see if you believed something completely different?
Are you able to step back from your current existence, and gain an understanding that the person you are right now is shaped by your beliefs, and these beliefs are delivering all the results in your life.
Remember that life doesn’t give you what you expect. Life gives you who you are.
Perhaps it’s time to shift from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset.
A fixed mindset is one where you believe that your ability, talent and intelligence is fixed. You base all your future decisions on what has happened to you in the past. You believe that the hand you have been dealt is the hand you have to play for the rest of your life.
For example, “the last time I made a sales call, I had an angry person slam the phone down on me and I will never make one of those calls again.” Or, “my last relationship destroyed me emotionally, so now I’m going to stay single forever.”
A growth mindset is one where you have an underlying belief that the hand you’re dealt in life is only the starting point. With a focus on constant learning and growth you believe that you can always adapt, and change for the better, when you need to tackle new challenges and opportunities in your life.
For example, “my last sales call was horrible, but if I adjust my script and approach the next call with more self-confidence and belief, I know I can achieve a different result.” Or “my last relationship was not great, so I am going to take some time to learn about who I am and the type of person I want to attract into my life.”
Ultimately, what you believe, can hurt you or help you. What you believe about yourself, about others, and about what you truly deserve in your life, will determine where your life goes from this point.
How do you think one of your own personal beliefs is currently holding you back?
Interrupt your own patterns. Keep growing. Nothing is fixed, unless you want it to remain so.