This week’s question from our portal “Ask Us Anything” comes from Monica.
I love the idea of finding the elegant solution. That blows my mind, and now I’m looking at everything with that framework in mind.
However, I have a question. You mentioned that if your mind is wired to see things through a step-by-step process, then you don’t see opportunities. I feel like that’s how my mind works—it’s actually my gift because of what I do. I’m a construction manager, so I have to see things step by step. How can I open up my ability to see opportunities?
Think: big picture, little picture.
Micro versus macro.
In my business, I have to use step-by-step thinking in some of things I do also. But when I’m looking at the big picture—of the business, the company, the vision of where we’re going—I open that up to whatever possibility might need to show up in order for that to happen.
You can separate those two ways of thinking. It’s actually a skill set to be able to think in a step-by-step way.
We can get trained in step-by-step thinking very methodically since childhood.
Just realize, “I can use this,” versus being used by it.
If I want shift to big-picture thinking, I’ll ask myself different questions. The bigger I want the vision to be out in front of me, the bigger my focus will be.
“What would I need over here? What would I need over there?”
“How could we move something from a quantum leap perspective all at one time, and not think about all the step-by-step things that may have to change for that to happen?”
I’ll focus on the big picture first, because then the step-by-step part will break itself down and reveal itself after.
