Are you a details person? Or a big picture person? You might well be both, but just in different situations. The thing is, that dependent on which you are and when, it can hold back your success in certain areas.
Why?
It’s this idea that you might see way too much detail before even going for something and thus not starting it. Imagine you want to get your health on track and think about joining a gym.
You say to yourself:
“There are so many gyms, how will I decide. I’ve got to phone up all these gyms and visit them and find out their prices. Then I’ll have to go through the whole sales process, then the induction process. Then I’ll finally choose a gym, but I’ll have to drive down there, find parking and there won’t be any or I’ll have to pay for it. Then I’ll have to rush to try and fit a class in or find equipment not already used. I’ll get the equipment and it’ll be sweaty and dirty from the person before.T hen I’ll have to find a shower, queue up for it, then I’ll have wet hair and have to dry it and put my make up on again (women only – generally!)”
You end up with so many steps and obstacles that you don’t actually do anything!
This is an example where small picture thinking can harm you in your route to success. Equally though, you might be only a big picture thinker – like many entrepreneurs are. They don’t like to get too bogged down in detail and see just the big vision. But then they let the details slide through – taxes, expenses, staffing costs and management and so on. And that can be their undoing too.
Neither is good nor bad. They are both useful – in the right context.
The trick here is to recognise whether the big picture or small picture thinking is what’s going to be most useful to you in any certain situation and also to recognise where your natural tendency is to slide towards. We all have a preference, even if sometimes we deviate depending on circumstances.
Once you recognise this in your self, then you are able to recognise when it’s holding you back and when it serves you.
What do you think? Does this make sense to you and can you recognise it in your own life?
Leave a comment below and let me know.
