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You need the big AND the little picture.
I was struggling on what to blog about this week…so I went for a run…and it became so clear…and here it is…
My wife is a photographer. She takes great pictures. Anyway, when I play with her camera…I love using the manual zoom and just zooming in and out with the lens. You can zoom really close…but then pull back and look at a wide view.
That is life.
What?
Intentionally and non-intentionally…we live life going back and forth from the close-ups and the wide-angle shots. The funny thing is, if you only stay at one of those perspectives…you never really get the whole picture. Here’s an example.
I used to work with Sunday School students. I would tell them to stand directly in front of the wall…and then describe to me what they see. In great detail they could explain everything in front of them…even the minute. Then, I would ask them to describe the rest of the room, and then things got a little fuzzy. “Uhhh…there’s a chair, a light, carpet I think, a weird teacher, and a rug…I don’t know?”
Why the difficulty?
Well, their view was too small (except for the weird teacher)…too limited…too specific. They couldn’t see the big picture because they were too focused on what was directly in front of them. To see the bigger room...they needed to zoom out…and take a wider perspective.
Now reverse the process. Same results, just opposite.
From a wide view, you can see the landscape, emerging patterns…the big picture. But, from that view…it is tough to see the specificity. So, you need to zoom in where needed.
The best way I can sum it up is like this: If you get too caught up in the small picture…you can lose perspective. When you only watch from a distance…you lose relevance. Your view is either too limited to see the greater picture, or too broad and out of touch.
What is the answer?
Just like that manual zoom lens…you need to be able to do both. The key is being conscious enough to know when to zoom in and when to zoom out…and just knowing that you have that choice in the first place.
For me, Spirit allows me to do both. When I am feeling too stressed or stuck with a current situation, I know I need to “pull-back” and look at it from a wider, more spiritual view. I need to view it the way Spirit, God, Love views it.
Conversely, if you stay too divine, you might distance yourself from taking any needed steps. There is a fine line between being “in the world, but not of it.” I believe you need to be able to be in the world so you can see what needs to be corrected in your life (or the world), but not “in it” to the degree that you forget that Spirit is ultimately in control guiding the way…not you.
Every day, we are tempted to get sucked into situations and dramas that keep us too close to the problem. This happens daily at work from balancing responsibilities, workload, deadlines, and all of the politics in any given office. Knowing that you can “zoom out” to a more spiritual approach gives you the opportunity to look at these situations from a less personal perspective, and then feel led to take the most appropriate action.
Recently, my improv partners and I met to discuss our strategy for the next 6-9 months. We all agreed on some pretty big goals and knew that we needed to increase the focus and commitment of the group to achieve them. A few days later, one of the newer members of the group let us know that she could no longer continue with us. She was having to make some life choices for her and her family, and felt she needed to step away for a time. This was difficult to hear because this was a person we have come to love for her talent and qualities, so it felt like there was a void.
That was from the “zoomed in” perspective.
Once I was able to “let go” and view the situation from Spirit on my wide lens…I could see that this was just a natural result of the shift the three of us partners had made days before. She knew nothing of our meeting, so on the surface it seemed coincidental that her e-mail would come just days after we decided we needed to ramp things up. It was better for everyone involved to confront this and handle it now, instead of months down the road when we all had more energy invested. Since this is happening now, it is still difficult news, but we are grateful to know where we stand.
So, instead of staying too close to the situation and wallowing in disappointment, I felt grateful for being able to step back, look at the BIG PICTURE…and see how Spirit has been right there the whole time guiding the way…for everyone.
So, how are you using your lens? PS -- if you want to read a good book that teaches you how to do this in the work world, check out Orbiting the Giant Hairball , by Gordon Mackenzie.
Read more from this blogger Travis Inc.
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