Friday, July 25, 2008

Seeing the forest with the trees

Lately, I’ve been trying to take a long look at life. Seeking to step back and get a wide-angle shot of what I’m doing and where I’m going.

This thinking brought to mind a saying one of my college professors had. He taught a course on how nations related to each other. Every once in a while he’d point out that a country’s leaders had focused too much on details and failed to see the big picture.

“They couldn’t see the forest for the trees,” he’d say.

Sometimes I feel like that. I’ve got all these things going on in life that need attention. And often each of them has multiple facets, each requiring time and effort.

I like all the various areas of my life. I need or want each of them. But I need and want to know how they all connect.

When looking for answers it’s always best to first ask questions. Here’s five that I’m pondering:

What is the most important thing I want to accomplish with the rest of my life and why? Or as I friend so eloquently put it, “When you look back on your life, what do you want to see?”

What are the reasons for all the various things I do? In other words, why do I do the things that I do?

What are my priorities? Among these various things, which do I need to do more than others? Which do I want to do more than others?

Who benefits and how? When I perform these tasks, what is the result?

What do I get out of each? How do the various things fit into my life’s purpose, my mission, my reason for being?

I’m still working through all this, but I feel certain that as I consider these, the pieces of my sometimes puzzled life will start fitting together.

Steve DeVane

2 comments:

Gary McElwain said...

Great questions to ponder. I can use those myself. But as far as seeing the forest for the tree's

And podering your situations, reminds me of a saying that the task will use all the time it is alotted.

Meaning I believe that what ever you consider will take all the time in your life. No matter what you decide to be or do in placing the importance.

We all know what is right! But making the choice is the difficult part.

Gary McElwain

SteveDeVane said...

Gary,

These questions are helping me find direction in life.

You're absolutely right that it's all about choices. The better our choices today, the more opportunities we'll have tomorrow.

Thanks for the comment.

Steve