What advice would you give yourself?

Advising your younger self can help you discover your present blindspots.

THINK ON IT: What advice would you give yourself?

The trouble with blindspots is that... well, they're blind. We often don't know we've made an error in judgment until we've suffered the consequences from it.

We lead our businesses every day with blindspots — it's impossible not to. And those blindspots can have a disastrous effect on our decisions. If we make an error when we create our strategy, that error can compound outward and onward, much like a chip in a windshield that keeps fracturing toward the edges. 

Yet, while we may not be able to see blindspots directly, we can get an idea about where they are likely to be — and that's by going back in time. 

The blindspots you’ve missed before? You’re likely to run into the same ones again (especially if you aren’t in the habit of a thorough postmortem). Unless we can acknowledge our weaknesses and seek out wise counsel to help us sidestep them, we’re bound to be blinded by them again. 

Wise counsel can be in the form of a friend or mentor, but it can also be yourself. 

Take a few moments today for some deep reflection. Ask yourself this question: "If I could speak to my younger self, what one piece of advice about my decision-making would I give?"

Taken seriously, and without hurry, that question can keep you from a decision bias you may have inadvertently become blind to.

“It is only in our decisions that we are important." — Jean-Paul Sartre

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