Question

threats and opportunity in my life​

Answer 1

Top 5 Threats (ranked in order of importance):

1. Crossing paths with others whom are malignant in their personalities — in life online and in society in any setting, if you are the target of a bully or con man/woman, manipulative narcissist, sociopath, or someone else who has a malignant personality — the users and abusers in society, the toll is immense; your health and well-being nosedives, and perhaps even your life itself will end. Know who these people are by their behaviors and tactics. And avoid them at all costs.
2. Non-awareness. If you don’t know that you don’t know, it is impossible to hold the knowledge required for making savvy, timely decisions. The result is costs and losses across the board.
3. Demanding to be understood prior to investing your time and energy to listen to and understand what someone else is saying. Worse, holding an expectation to be the one who is listened to, and understood, and agreed with — exclusively (without regard for the other person nor equality and fairness). In other words, holding “double standards” — acceptable for oneself to do x, but others denied the privilege to do the same.
4. Closed-mindedness. One must be open to new learning and input. If the mind is closed, nothing new enters; thus, there cannot be any change.
5. Low emotional intelligence — EQ is a much more important than IQ, and makes or breaks a person’s relationships; and nothing in life gets achieved without relationship management skills

Top 5 Opportunities (ranked equally)

1. Developing self awareness — strengths, weaknesses, limitations, core needs, values, interests, vocational preferences, tolerances and what are one’s zero tolerances, etc. Without awareness, there is no knowledge of oneself; without knowledge of oneself, there is no understanding; the absence of self understanding prohibits self mastery; and without mastery of oneself there can be no change and achievement.
2. Developing situational awareness at all times; 24–7. Holding this ability and practicing the skill at all times is the single most important thing in your control, which you can do, that protects your safety.
3. Making the choice to be open to discoveries and new learning, including investing time/ energy/ interest/ caring to understand what others think and why they think the way they think — positions on issues, including those who hold opposing and conflicting views/ beliefs, and what which may lie within oneself, but historically is denied or pushed under a rock
4. Developing content awareness; questioning “what don’t I know; what am I lacking awareness of; what do I think I know but really don’t know, as a result of blind trust in someone else having said it and just going along with it, but not truly knowing?” And so on. No matter who you are, no matter what your IQ, no matter what your level of success, no matter what your net worth is, there are things you hold an acute awareness of and those are likely in your domain expertise. And there are also areas that are totally lacking — in some field or discipline there are matters that you are completely ignorant of (total non-awareness). The latter opportunity — striving to develop basic fundamental awareness in those areas in which you hold none — is among the most valuable opportunities there is.
5. Recognizing HOW you make decisions and choices: Is it blind trust in what someone else thinks, says, advises or recommends? Or is it the result of your own investment of mental energy and time to think —and by think, I mean critically think — and think independently, rather than just follow the herd/ others as if you’re a sheep. In the event you aren’t aware, sheep cannot think independently, thus they must always be in the company of a leader who leads the sheep to take action, this being a sheepdog). So, the opportunity consists of putting in the time, making the commitment to critically assess and understand specifically HOW you think. Not just what you think but how that thinking occurs and the process of thinking which leads to decisions and actions, including the decisions/ choices not to make decisions/ choices. During this process of investigation into how you think and form opinions and positions, you’ll discover if/when and to what extent you rely on assumptions and perceptions in your decisions/ choices. Because these are often in error and thus, erroneous, especially assumption making, this one simple action to question and study how you reach the decisions you make, holds tremendous opportunity. For example, once you realize how you yourself think and thus, why you reach the conclusions you hold and the choices and decisions you make, you’ll be able to spot when others are relying on assumptions. Not to mention the ability to discern who is who in terms of their thinking — meaning those who are capable of and do think for themselves, and those whose minds are controlled by other people (the sheepdogs). This is absolutely critical knowledge.

Your question is among the best-ever questions.