If the first barrier to external self-awareness is other people’s reluctance to tell the truth, the second is our reluctance to ask for it. Most of us, at least intellectually, know we should be seeking more feedback than we are currently. Yet our emotions can still stop us in our tracks. Because asking for feedback makes us uncomfortable, we prefer to find ways to justify our willful ignorance. In my experience, there are three primary excuses we make, and because they are designed to help us feel better about keeping our heads in the sand, I call them the Ostrich Trinity. But luckily,
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