Top Shelf Blindspots: How to Spot the Big Opportunities Hiding In Plain Sight

Your biggest potential opportunities are within arm’s reach… But are almost impossible to see. Here’s how to spot them.

My partner, Kelly, was frantic that she’d lost her credit card.

She’d already searched her wallet, purse, backpack, and jacket-all the usual suspects turning up nothing-when she remembered her jeans. They’d been removed and tossed onto the top shelf of the closet in favour of sweat pants almost the moment we arrived home from lunch, where she had last used the missing card.

As I pulled them down off the shelf, a card slipped from the pocket and skittered across the ground.

Success!

As the card settled, however, we realized it was not the credit card, but her driver’s license. The pockets of the jeans were otherwise empty.

Having thoroughly examined seemingly every nook, cranny, and surface in our home, we prepared to head out and retrace our steps of the day, already resigned to the fact that our search was likely to be unsuccessful.

As we headed for the door, however, I couldn’t shake a nagging feeling.

Following the hunch, I returned to the closet and reached up to the top shelf where the jeans had been resting.

The shelf was juuuuuust a few inches above eye level, so while I could see most of the contents of the shelf-even the 3-inch high ironing board that was folded and stored there-I couldn’t see the shelf’s actual surface.

I reached up and ran my hands over the shelf.

Nothing.

Damn.

Then I reached further and felt my way across the ironing board.

Almost immediately, my fingers brushed up against what could only be the missing card. I pulled it down, elated at having solved the mystery.

Not only had I solved the mystery, however.

In finding the bank card where and how I did, I’d stumbled onto an important type of blind spot that not only keeps us from seeing lost credit cards, but also many of the biggest…