Mikasa is a beloved manga character in the Attack on Titan series. She graduated top of her class and is one of the strongest fighter in the regiment. She is brave, reliable and intensely loyal to her team and her friends. Yet, there are huge blind spots that she is not aware of and that gets in the way of her growing as a person and building the important relationships in her life.
Here are some blind spots that can trap us
Lack of awareness
Some blind spots are unintentional and happens because we cannot see ourselves and nobody has every pointed it out to us.
Mikasa cares deeply about Eren and is dedicated to protecting him in the face of any danger. However, she fails to see that he does not enjoy being ‘protected’ and being treated like a little brother.
What to do? – Focus on daily self-awareness will help to uncover this blind spot
Failure to think through
When we work on problems and make decisions without thinking through all sides of the matter or the consequences of our action, we fall into our blind side.
Mikasa always reacts when she sees her friends hurt, especially Eren. Many times she draws her sword ready to fight against a team member or even a superior without thinking of the implication of her action.
What to do?- Think of what gets you emotional and hold yourself back from being impulsive or impatient, then check for facts before acting.
Self-deception
When we know that the way we live or the things we do are harmful yet refuse to believe that anything bad can result from it, we are lying to ourselves. Usually it is hard to realise that we are deceiving ourselves.
Mikasa was an excellent fighter and she assumed that her strength and abilities to protect the people she loved was all that they really wanted. She was way too intense and always very cut and dry with people. She never really made much effort to develop her people skills and relate to people because she was too confident of her battle skills.
What to do?- Get feedback from people who care about you and honestly want the best for you.
Maybe if Mikasa had realized her blind spots and made effort to develop relational skills, she would have responded differently to her friends in particular Eren and gotten what she really wanted.
Here’s how you can identify your own blind spots
Going on with life without knowing our blind spots is like fighting an enemy with blind folds on. Ask yourself these questions to find your blind spots
- What problems am I avoiding?
- What opportunities am I ignoring?
- What’s really going on?
- What am I overlooking?
- What do I refuse to see?
- What don’t I want to do?
- What assumptions am I making?
- What am I failing to consider?
- How am I dishonest to myself?
- What am I really afraid of?
- If other people are honest with me, what will they tell me?
Now that you have some hints about your blind spots, don’t beat yourself up for failing to see it earlier. Often blind spots arise from distorted thinking. The purpose of uncovering these gaps in our thoughts and behavior is to change the way we see and do things.
Here’s more stuff you can learn from Manga characters
