A Letter from Chris Suarez
ZOOM IN. ZOOM OUT.
We have spent a lot of time recently talking about setting goals, increasing focus, hitting targets. All of these things cause us to zoom in, to eliminate distraction, to block out the periphery. On a day-to-day basis this is a very positive thing. In fact, it is a necessary thing if we are going to get anything done. We win our day by zooming in.
If we aren’t careful however, over time, that extreme focus can lead to lack of perspective. Extreme focus can pull us away from living experientially. Extreme focus can also be linked to negativity. Perhaps that has everything to do with the adjective we attach - extreme.
I have a habit of taking things to an extreme. It’s a personality flaw. I take almost everything I do to extremes: reading, running, eating, sleeping (or lack there-of), relationships, working. I tend to rationalize by saying “I’m all in”, but ultimately it’s extremism. Again, you can find some genius in extremism. But you can also lose your life in extremism. We win our life by zooming out.
Over the past few months I’ve watched so many people get absorbed, single-mindedly focused, and dare I say obsessed over things they have absolutely no control over. It has affected their viewpoints, their relationships, their stress levels, and in the end, their quality of life.
I have recently been fascinated by a study done at the University of Toronto and published in the Journal of Neuroscience in the Summer of 2009. The study found that our level of happiness and positivity actually caused physiological changes to our visual cortex - the part of our brain responsible for sight and eventual information processing. It is a study that Shawn Achor points to in his 2010 book,The Happiness Advantage. He argues that our happiness gives us a tangible advantage in a competitive workplace environment. How so? The University of Toronto found that when primed with positivity rather than negativity, subjects were able to see and remember at much greater detail photographs that they were shown and later asked to recall. Those primed with positivity before seeing the pictures were quickly able to see the background, foreground, main subjects, and surprisingly even small details that those primed with negativity didn’t even notice. Those that were negative often missed major parts of the background or overall landscape. Being happy ultimately led people to see the big picture. Being happy allowed people to take a step back, understand their surroundings, and empirically solve bigger problems by seeing the big picture. Being happy improved vision, quite literally and figuratively.
This year perhaps more than any other, those that have been able to keep things in perspective, see the big picture, and process the world around them were able to maintain control of how they experienced life. It's no surprise that those that became too focused or myopic found themselves overwhelmed, negative, and quite possibly disengaged.
So how do we zoom out and see the big picture?
Four simple things we need to make sure we do every month so as not to live an extremely focused life in exchange for an experiential one.
1. Learn something new.
2. Meet someone new.
3. See something new.
4. Play something new.
Learn.
If we ensure that we are learning something new every month it will force us to gauge how we interpret the world. Learning can happen by simply reading a book, taking a class, listening to someone respected in their field - staying sincerely curious about life. Learning forces you to zoom out.
Meet.
If we are meeting someone new every month it will force us to gain different perspectives. We all think differently, perceive and solve problems differently, and bring a different history to the table. By making sure we have new conversations with new people regularly it will prevent stubbornness or rigidness in our opinions. Seek out people that grew up differently than you, lived in different places than you, took different paths than you. Meeting new people forces you to zoom out.
See.
If we see something new every month it will force us to break our focus even for a relatively short period of time. That could be as simple as changing the office or home from which we are working. It could be a change of scenery for the day or the weekend. It could be shadowing someone in our industry or outside of our industry. Maybe it’s a new hike, a new running route, or even just driving home a different way. Seeing new things forces you to zoom out.
Play.
Remember, it has been clinically proven that happiness will give us a competitive advantage at work. We all want that. So go ahead and give yourself permission to play. Grab the kids, grab the pup, grab the ball, the bike, the skis, the kayak. Grab whatever it is you enjoy doing. Playing forces you to zoom out.
Keep in mind, incredible work gets done by zooming in. We gain traction by zooming in. We build momentum by zooming in.
And, we see the big picture by zooming out. We gain perspective by zooming out. We build big worlds by zooming out. All business owners and leaders need to make sure they zoom out. Problems are foreseen and solutions prescribed when we zoom out. It is your competitive advantage.
And even more importantly, we live experiential lives by zooming out.
Chris