The story...
I wish I would've received more honest feedback throughout my life. I expect that people often didn't feel safe delivering their perceptions or ideas to me. What would I say and how would I react? I wrote most of my own performance appraisals; yet, I sincerely appreciated those that were written by my supervisor with constructive feedback and a clearer view towards what "better" might look like. I truly did act on much of the feedback and became a better employee and person along the way.
Strangely, one of my favorite sayings is "you don't know what you don't know." Those ideas, or truths, fit into one of the four quadrants in the following diagram - this diagram continues to be very helpful for me. As a teacher, I've this need to explain what this grid is and how it might best be applied. Yet, it's self explanatory. You'll likely desire to increase the size of your quadrant "A" and more honestly assess the amount of potential knowledge to be found in each of your quadrants.
As I've grown as a person, I believe quadrants "A" and B" have become bigger and that quadrants "C" and "D." have become smaller. As humans, I expect that we vastly minimize the size of quadrant "D."
The only church in town would hopefully grow their congregant's knowledge found in quadrants "A," "B" and "C." Working out the unknowns in quadrants "B", "C" and "D," that're revealed only in God's Word, are a primary reason for the church.
Just for today...
"I put so much energy into hiding the truth that, although no one rejected me, I was as isolated and lonely as if they had." Courage to Change (p. 127)
"I wasted large portions of my day lost in daydreams, rewriting the past with happy endings and doling out justice to those who had caused me harm." Hope for Today (p. 127)
