Awareness is enough

We often think the hard work is in solving a problem. It’s not.

The hardest step is becoming aware that there is a problem at all.

The biggest, thorniest, and most potentially destructive problems arise in our blind spots.

(Of course they do - if they arose anywhere else, we’d deal with them before they became a big deal.)

Blind spots are places we know exist; they’re just so uncomfortable for us to look at that we shy away from them entirely.

The slightly misaligned values with a co-founder that you gloss over.

The project tasks you know are important, but which you continually deprioritise.

The difficult feedback you’re colleague probably needs to hear, which you haven’t shared with her.

These aren’t bolts from the blue - on some level, you know they’re there.

But they’re not fully in your awareness because, for whatever reason, you don’t want them to be there.

And because we’re all unique, all our blind spots are unique - which is why what might be a completely paralysing issue for me might be just another Tuesday for you.

On my wall above my desk, I have some principles and ideas written on post-its that help me.

One of them is: “awareness is enough”.

I often go back and forth about it - what good is awareness without action? Don’t we need to do something?

But I keep it there because I find that more often than not, the hardest battle we fight is to become aware of what battle needs to be fought.

Once we acknowledge the problem is there, realise our discomfort with it, and that it’s been resting in a blind spot, there is a qualitative shift.

Sure, we can arm up, go out and conquer it.

Or we realise with a small reframe, we can solve the problem in an entirely different way.

And sometimes, the problem just goes away altogether without us needing to do anything.

Because the work has already been done.

Awareness is enough.