Be Your Own Life Coach With The Socratic Method.

It just takes honesty, practice, and these questions.

There are certainly benefits to working with a coach or therapist. Both make it easier to catch blind spots in one’s thinking and can help hold us to accountability.

That said, the Socratic Method can be used to facilitate self-coaching through journaling; helping brainstorm through challenges, correct for errant thinking, and expand perspectives.

Before we dive into the Socratic Method though, let's look at ways to compensate for blind spots and accountability on our own.

Tips on Blind Spots

Blindspots are bound to happen. The brain has neurochemical limitations, is biased by previous experiences and conditioned priorities, and often ignores things that make it too uncomfortable. Thus it rarely sees the full picture and requires training to expand its focus.

You can help correct for blindspots by:

• Broadening your questions
• Coming back to your journal at different times of the week or states of mind
• Asking friends to help you see the situations from different points of view

(Try to find a friend who is impartial and objective. Not everyone can hold this space as they’ll have to be aware of their own blind spots, triggers, and biases.)

This is really useful since the mind is limited in what it can focus on and it’s used to finding familiar patterns.

Maybe you think about work more than other things because that’s what was modeled to you and now that you’re less than happy with life you’re thinking that’s because work sucks.

In reality, it might be a relationship that causes a lot of emotional stress or a bit too much drinking or something else you haven’t thought of. Since your mind is used to these things and is preoccupied with work, you might not see these as problems.

If you ask enough questions you can help reduce your blind spots. Getting another point of view always helps too. Ask around.

Bonus Tips: Imagining the situation as happening to a friend or a stranger or writing things…