How To Find Your (Literal) Blind Spots
Did you know you have a blind spot in each eye? And that your brain hides it from you?
None of us see the world as it is, but only as we interpret it. Even what we see with our own eyes is a reality constructed by our brains.
Download and print the PDF below, and you can do a simple experiment to "see" for yourself!
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What's going on here?
Sight is not a direct experience of photons hitting our retinas, let alone a direct experience of the actual, physical world. We experience a high-definition, seamless, and sharply focused world in vivid color. Yet our eyes are not physically capable of delivering that experience. Only our most central vision is sharp and color-sensitive. The rest is blurry and monochrome. It is our brain that constructs our visual experience. It is, of course, closely correlated with those photons hitting our retinas, but it is not exactly the same thing. Our brain changes things. It interprets. It filters. In the case of our visual blind spots, it fills in the gaps automatically, without us ever knowing.
Our brain's filtering and interpretation of the visual world is obviously pretty useful. Our species would not have survived without it, but we have layer upon layer of other filters and interpretations that we apply to what is actually happening, and many of them are not so helpful.
We all have blind spots. We all have filters and biases. It is part of the human condition. Some of them are a direct result of our evolution and are nearly universal. Others are learned and highly individual. As leaders it is essential that we keep looking for our blind spots. Most of them are not as easy to find as the ones built into our eyes, but we can help.
Schedule a free, 30-minute introductory executive coaching session to get started.
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