18th May 2024
Focus on the days and you’ll lose sight of the years.
It’s easy to get caught up in the ups and downs of the days and lose sight of the bigger picture.
Being perpetually zoomed in creates two challenges:
The struggle feels bigger than it really is.
Growth feels smaller than it really is.
The 10,000-foot view provides perspective—on the manageable nature of your struggles and the impressive nature of your growth.
There’s a metaphor I shall like to use to explain the concept of ‘Zoom out’
If you put a tablespoon of salt into a cup of water, it will be intensely salty and unpleasant to taste.
But if you put that same teaspoon of salt into a swimming pool of water, it will be barely perceptible.
In the same way, when our mind begins to fixate on our problems, insecurities, anxieties and struggles, they tend to feel very intense and overwhelming.
The mind can get very constricted around them, and our problems and worries become the centre stage in our lives. Everything else is in the background.
However conversely, the more mental space we can surround those thoughts with, the less they will bother us.
There are two effective ways to zoom out:
Vertically: Zoom out via “altitude” and see the bigger picture context of the moment.
Horizontally: Zoom out via “mental time travel” to the past or the future and observe the present through that new lens.
Go back 10 years and think about how your past self would be in awe of where you are today.
Go forward 20 years and think about how your future self would give anything to be back doing the things you get to do today.
Both can work wonders.
If you find yourself caught up in the smallest of details, spending too much time in the weeds, and losing sight of the larger goal and mission, it’s time to zoom out.
Zooming out allows us to step out of the problem to get a better sense of what we are dealing with, and how it fits into the grand scheme of things.
It can help us discover “why” we’re doing what we’re doing, the North Star to rally around, which ultimately fuels the drive to keep moving forward.
Always remember: When in doubt, zoom out & stay blessed forever.