Striving towards Excellence

-Karthik Gurumurthy

I am currently reading the book "Flipping the Switch" by John G. Miller. Got a lot from the readings today. One thing which stood out was the discussion about "Exception mentality". The author had mentioned five roadblocks to learning. One of them being "Exception mentality".

What that means is, when we learn from a book or a speaker, we feel it is a great content that can be useful for certain person or a group but certainly it doesn't apply to me!. There is a lesson here we should all keep in mind: "We tend to teach to others what we need to hear ourselves."

Meaning: If we hear an idea and immediately think of other people who really need it, that's a good sign we may need the idea more than they do. This can be a challenging thing, but one I have certainly found to be true in my own life. I am guilty of this tendency too. Whenever we feel the urge to teach others, we have to ask ourselves the same question. Yes, we tend to teach to others what we need to hear ourselves.

When you think, I really know someone who needs to hear this, stop and  consider if you can apply it to yourself first by asking the question to yourself " How can I use this in my life"?.

This is a big eye-opener for me. I am glad atleast I found this blindspot.