The KEY: A Clear and Present Danger

This Key points to a clear and present danger. There are probably more problems and ailments caused by this blind spot than by any other issue. Your success and well-being can be seriously hampered by this insidious blind spot and freeing yourself from it can amount to finding a new beginning and giving yourself a second life.

This has to make the top of your CIA watch list. It shows up as self-doubt, low self-esteem or insecurity. There is almost nothing more debilitating and dangerous than chronic self-doubt and insecurity. Here is a little inventory of what self-doubt, low self-esteem and insecurity can do to you and to your people:

1. Sap your energy
2. Drain you emotionally
3. Stifle initiatives
4. Dampen creativity
5. Diminish morale
6. Separate you from your strengths and good instincts
7. Produce anxiety
8. Kill collaboration
9. Paralyze action
10. Deplete the immune system and make you susceptible to a variety of health conditions

A wide range of physical and psychological conditions can be traced back to self-doubt and low self-esteem. Major studies have linked the incidence of depression, anxiety, asthma and immune system disorders directly to how a person views themselves and the level of care they take or do not take in areas like exercise, nutrition, sleep, stress relief and cognitive function.

Let’s be clear: there is an important distinction between being unsure in the face of a situation with inherent ambiguity and having self-doubt, insecurity and anxiety. Actually, handling ambiguity effectively and gracefully is a critical competence in today’s rapidly shape-shifting world.

What is the blind spot? Click here to read more about this threat and the three steps you can take to address it.

© Aviv Shahar