The Big Picture

You have probably heard the saying, “you can’t see the forest for the trees.” Indeed, sometimes we get so bogged down in the details that we cannot step back and see the big picture. It requires a certain amount of mental discipline to do the work that must be done every day, and yet keep your eyes on the greater goal. When you lose sight of the goal it seems like you are working hard and going nowhere. You also tend to lose your direction because your work is not targeted towards any specific end. The goal then becomes, to just make it through another day.

The game of Chess is an example of why we must pay attention to the details and the big picture at the same time. If checkmating your opponent’s King is the goal, and you fail to pay attention to each move, study your opponent’s moves, and strategically advance towards your goal, you may make some good moves, but in the end that’s all you had, were good moves. If, on the other hand, your opponent is thinking strategically, conceding losses in order to make gains, all your moves will be in vain.

So it is, in our lives, we must have a goal so strong that it never gets lost in the day-to-day drudgery. We must study our moves before we make them, and we must, as my father use to say, “make every move count,” if we are going to be successful. So, if we study our moves, and always step back and look at the big picture, our moves will always be in line with our goals. Any work without purpose, mission, or a goal deadens the mind, and is like sitting in the waiting room to die. It reminds me of the mythical figure Sisyphus, who was banished to the eternal fate of having to roll a big boulder up a hill, only to have it roll back down again, at which point he commenced to roll it up again. While that feat required a great amount of physical discipline, we want to be disciplined mentally, and in every other way, in order to have big picture success.