Don't Get Blindsided

Don’t Get Blindsided: Strengthening Your Awareness in Life & Leadership

If you’ve followed my recent conversations around peripheral vision, you know I believe that what happens “just outside your main line of sight” often shapes your outcomes more than the things directly in front of you. Peripheral vision helps you navigate wisely, avoid the avoidable, and notice what others miss.

But even with strong peripheral awareness, life still throws curveballs.
And that’s where this next level comes in: not being blindsided.

What Does It Mean to Be Blindsided?

In sports, being blindsided is the hit you never see coming — the defender coming from the side while your eyes are focused forward.

In business, it’s the shift in market, team dynamics, or leadership expectations that wasn’t on your radar.

In life and faith, it’s the unexpected diagnosis, the sudden transition, the relationship shift, the loss, the opportunity that arrives disguised as disruption.

Being blindsided isn’t a sign of failure.
It’s a sign of being human.

But we can strengthen our readiness.

Why We Get Blindsided

We get blindsided when:

• We’re overly focused on the immediate.
  
  

• We assume stability instead of planning for variability.
  
  

• We don’t pause long enough to take in the whole landscape.
  
  

• We neglect our internal “dashboard” — our purpose, values, and emotional capacity.
  
  

And sometimes?
We get blindsided because change is inevitable. It will come. The goal isn’t to avoid it — it’s to be prepared when it does.

How to Reduce the Impact of Being Blindsided

Here’s where your continuous loop strengthens you:

CONNECT – Maintain relationships and networks that help you see what you can’t see alone.
LEARN – Stay curious. Stay current. Stay aware.
ACTIVATE – Put plans in motion and adjust quickly when needed.
SERVE – Stay grounded in mission, not motion.
THRIVE – Build resilience so that surprises don’t derail your purpose.

This is how you create margin.
This is how you create readiness.
This is how you lead with grace and recover with strength.

Truth: You Will Be Blindsided

That’s not pessimism — that’s preparation.

Life doesn’t wait for perfect alignment. But when you keep your peripheral vision strong, you reduce the impact. You recover faster. You pivot smarter. You see meaning inside the unexpected.

And you continue walking your legacy path — one clear, purposeful step at a time.