Zoom Out!

We are all caught up in different seasons of life. Rejoicing during moments of successes, fortunes, and riches and lamenting in our failures, misfortunes, and debt. Often forgetting to zoom out and analyzing whether all of it is really worth it. Sometimes it’s important to scrutinize the bigger picture to realize that today’s difficulty will not define our entire life. In fact, what seems tough right now might turn into something beautiful soon.

When we focus only on the day to day activities, without realizing whether they are important or not, we keep completing tasks but never attain happiness or peace of mind. It is vital to differentiate between what is important and what is urgent. For example, preparing Minutes of the Meeting or folding laundry is urgent but reading to our children is important. We usually concentrate on the urgent, pushing around the important things and fooling ourselves that we would do the important part someday soon. If something is urgent, it will somehow get done. On the other hand, if important things are pushed around, we only end up repenting to have lost the time or opportunity.

To realize this difference between important and urgent, we need to zoom out of our lives and take a good look at the bigger picture.

We should not define our life with today’s failure or success. Life is just like the seasons in nature. Sometimes like the wilted autumn, sometimes like the spring flowers, while at times it’s as bright as the summers and on other days it’s cold as the winters. But none of the seasons alone define nature. Similarly, to get a clearer understanding of our life, our goals, and the things that really matter, we need to zoom out at times.