Blind Spots

It is funny but it only occurred to me recently, I have become fond of saying it, “if I knew what my blind spots were, they would not be blind spots.”  Some things I think I have a handle on and it is close to right.  Other things I think I have a handle on little realizing I have no idea.
I know it is true for me and I have seen it in others.  It comes with the territory.  I can act like my idea is the end of a matter and the only way worth considering.  Fact is though, the response deserves a disbelieving “yeah right.”
I honestly think it is attitude that is the difference.  I have weirdness.  I am not unique in that way and can either acknowledge my short comings or look everywhere else.
It is one of the reasons I am keen to get others input into thoughts, ideas and potential actions.  I can get it wrong.  As they say, “no man [sorry ladies or woman] is an island.”  I need others and others need me.  I try to avoid being 90% right and 10% wrong.  Initially 10% may not look like much, but down the road it becomes glaringly obvious.
I do not think though I should wait necessarily before I am confident of being 100% right.  That to me is where attitude comes in.
I used to be a crew on a cobra catamaran.  The hardest part was always getting started. Altering direction was always easy when there was momentum.  When we were going we made adjustments as necessary.
When my attitude is right, I make adjustments and stay the course.  But a wrong attitude can see me sailing off (maybe incredibly fast) in the wrong direction.  If I make the necessary corrections, I may have lost time, but I am still in it.  Where I don’t make the necessary corrections, I can be the best in the world, but that is meaningless to the racing fraternity when I do not complete the course laid out for me.
(I do not think l will ever forget being in a practice race before the Australian championships at Hervey Bay.  A cyclone was going down the coast.  Never have I experienced going so fast across the water.  Then we ploughed into a wave.  I was on trapeze and attached to that I became airborne and did a semi-circle around the front of the boat.  It was like the best and the worst of times.  I remember thinking “I want to go home”. Most boats pulled out.  We did not.  I remember looking at the bend in our mast.  It takes considerable wind to bend one of them.  The tournament went on.  We came 16th.”)
The thing for me is blind spots can undo in sailing and in life.  I don’t want to be disqualified in either.
I am reading a book at the moment and the guy took up sailing.  He was a novice and so went to one of the best in his local club and got advice and went out with him.  He now has a crew of his own.
Even when I know stuff, I like to come at something from the angle of knowing nothing.  It is amazing what helpful tips can be picked up as a result.
I can learn from others and they from me.  But when I do not acknowledge my blind spots, it can all go wrong, and I am likely to take others with me.