Sometimes, we can’t see the forest through the trees.
This past Friday, I shared that I got up and wiped down our 6 screen doors and their corresponding glass doors. Over this weekend, it was remarkable to me how much BETTER I can see through them all. It made me realize how dirty they truly were, and how desperately they truly needed to be cleaned. I realized it’s probably been over 6 months since I’ve done that project (long before the summer started!). It also made me wonder how I could’ve not noticed the layer of film/dirt that piled up on them for this long.
As I reflected on this, I was reminded of how important it often is that we pull ourselves OUT of things, so that we can truly see things. We can’t see the forest through the trees; we need to take a bird’s eye view. Sometimes, when we’re standing on the ground, we don’t have immense visibility of everything around us. We need to take the 10,000 foot view. We enjoy the views from airplanes or the tops of mountains, because we see things on the ground DIFFERENTLY from that vantage point. Our lives are exactly like this. We often need to give our problems some SPACE and DISTANCE- so we can truly see and understand them for what they are- then SOLVE them.
A great way to take a step back in your own life is to commit to at LEAST an hour of “strategy time” every single week. Starting each week with an hour for you to plan our your most important goals, priorities, and tasks for EVERY area of your life- is a great way to gain control over your life. Note I said: “EVERY area of your life”. Not just your work life; your career. But your personal life, too. Planning out when you’ll connect with an old friend, spend time with your partner, read, exercise, or get vital errands done- will make you feel WHOLE and BALANCED. All too many of us don’t do this, and that allows our lives to get very unbalanced over time.
During your strategy time hour, you can ask yourself all sort of key questions, such as:
· What is the MOST important thing I can do this week at home, and at work?
· Is there any area of my life that I’m starting to feel unhappy about?
· What might need my attention that hasn’t been getting it lately?
· Who do I really need to connect with this week, and how can I do that well?
· What area of my life don’t I feel great about right now? What ONE THING can I do this week to help change or shift that?
When we do this every single week, things aren’t able to get wildly out of control on us. We’re not able to gain 50 pounds without noticing. We’re not able to run a marriage into the ground without noticing. We’re not able to end up in the same role at work for a decade without any development or growth without noticing. It just can’t happen. We force ourselves to pay attention.
For anyone who ISN’T doing this- I encourage you to give it a try just for 30 days, and see if you start to feel more control, power, and happiness in your life.
