Anth Quinn

Are you someone who dreams big? Or are you too busy just getting by?

People who get stuck procastinating often don’t realise it’s only because they are acting like a bird or a worm.

Want to know how this could be holding you back?

When it comes to where people choose to pay their attention it seems some of us prefer to be busy, busy busy always taking some form of action while others tend to think in grand visions, goals and dreams that they will achieve “one day”.

But how specifically is this a problem and what to do about it?

If you’re a big picture “dreamer” then chances are you tend to be pretty relaxed day-today and like to spend your time thinking up big plans and ideas of what you could do in the future. If you procrastinate it will tend to be over what you see as the mundane routine activities of life, or the boring details of your big projects. You’ll tend to choose activities, which you enjoy in the moment and put off the stuff you don’t think you’ll enjoy.

If you’re someone who focuses one the details of things you may well find that you always seems to be busy and maybe you don’t see this as procrastination. However being busy is not always the same thing as being focused on what is most important. If you’re in the detail mode it’s all too easy to be busy doing nothing of importance, or running around reacting to other people’s priorities but not taking the time to get some perspective on how you are spending your time.

In general neither of these patterns is better than the other, they are both useful and which mode is more useful is entirely dependent on the context that you’re in at the time.

Good businesses have a mix of big picture and detail people, and they take time to match the preference of the person with the demands of the role.

For example, if the person leading the organisation is focused on the details of an operation they will tend to focus their time on the details and ignore the future vision and direction of the business – so the company can end up really efficient at producing something the market no longer wants. They may also tend to micro-manage the people around them alienating people as a result.

If the person in charge is entirely big picture then they may spend lots of time producing big visions for the future direction of the company but end up going bust because they didn’t pay attention to the details of the financial cash-flow.

So businesses that are successful tend to match people’s preferences with the role they are asked to do and then put systems in place to ensure they actually talk to each other!

So how does this relate to your life?

Well, I’m not suggesting that you split yourself into two personality types, but I am going to suggest that if you will benefit from developing your ability to work in the detail and on the big picture because as we’ve already said both are important.

• The “bird’s eye” big picture view is what allows you to get overall perspective and set directions and purpose to your activities and you life.

• The “worm’s eye” detail is where all action takes place.

It’s kind of like climbing a hill to take in the view “big picture” – you only get there by taking one step “detail/action”

Imagine walking up a steep hill, you might try putting your head down and focusing entirely on where you were putting your feet, you might keep going but you could easily lose your way. However if you choose to only keep your eye on the summit you’ll likely trip over a rock!

So best learn to do both :o)

Developing this ability to think at different levels is one of the crucial skills of living a fulfilling life so it is well worth practising with as we move forward.

For now it’s worth taking a minute to consider your own life.

Are you someone who is busy, busy, busy without stopping to think if this is the most useful and rewarding way to be spending your time?

If so one magic question you could begin to ask yourself is:

“For what purpose?”

Answering this question will naturally focus your attention on the larger view and give you more perspective.

Are you someone who has lots of vague dreams (you might even call them goals but if they lack detail then they are nothing but dreams) while things remain vague dreams they are very difficult to take action on after all where would you begin? The magic questions to get you down into actionable detail are what? when? who? how? The more detail you add to your dream the easier it will be to take action on.

Once you’ve got a clear outcome in mind the magic question for you is going to be:

“What’s the next specific action?”

Helping you control the level of your thinking is one of the most important jobs of a coach but with a little ongoing practice you can learn to master this skill for yourself as you create new more flexible ways of thinking.

So if you’ve found yourself busy achieving nothing or frustrated at your ability to take consistent action on your vague dreams, since you’ve read this far, why not take advantage of this moment to consider where you’ve been stuck and commit to taking some action by writing your answers to these questions in the comments box below.

Don’t think to hard, just write down your answer and then go and act on your answer! Then let us know how it went.

Sick of vague frustrating dreams, ask yourself:

“What’s the next specific action?”

Struggling to keep your head above water stop for a moment and ask yourself:

“For what purpose?”

All the best,

Anth.

PS: I’m one of nature’s natural bird’s and have learned to choose to work as a worm when required and I can still fly off if I don’t pay attention :o) what about you?

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 22nd, 2009 at 1:00 pm and is filed under Procrastination. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.