Overview

.
Every once in a while it is a good idea to step back from whatever it is you are doing in order to see it from a different perspective ~ from an overview perspective.
Once we get involved in the ‘nitty-gritty’ of the project, work or chore at hand we can see the details, the immediate things we need to do or take care of ~ but at the same time we may loose track of our greater goal. We may get so overwhelmed by what needs to be done, that we cannot see what could be done in order to reach our objective.

It is that situation when we can help ourselves by taking a deep breath, closing our eyes for maybe 30 seconds ~ so we can disentangle ourselves from what we are doing enough to get a fresh perspective on where we are going. To get an overview perspective...

Yesterday I found myself in a position to have a much more literal overview perspective as I took a short gondola ride over an extensive exhibition.
Looking down ~ even though it wasn’t that high up ~ things looked decidedly different!

Suddenly it was easy to see how the different parts of the exhibit were laid out. People walking around through the same parts of the show we had just left looked much smaller from above. And looking at other components of the display shapes and colors were mosaic-like, rather than the 3-D walk-through experiences that they are from an ‘on the ground’ perspective.

It was a terrific illustration of what happens when you allow yourself to see things as an overview!

The things you already know are placed in their proper perspective. This often means that they are much smaller than you had perceived them before ~ being components of a whole rather than mountainous obstacles.
New things can be seen as a pattern, a mosaic. This way you can see that there are multiple ways to either work with it, or to circumvent it if what is there does not belong in your vision or plan...

Having seen the overview has provided a ‘road map’ to the goal. And while ~ when you are dealing with the ‘nitty-gritty’ of it all ~ small things can be really ‘in your face’, taking up a lot of time and more energy than you intended to give it; stepping back from it to observe what is happening from a distance, an overview, permits you to discern what is really important and what is not.

Yet putting yourself in the position from which you can see that overview perspective is not always easy. Sometimes I just wish I could take a short gondola ride over my life...
.
.