Life can be confusing. For a photographer not so much.
When she looks at what is in front of her, the photographer can determine what is most interesting for her to capture. The wide shot that has so much diversity or will it be the single raindrop on a leaf? She leaves us little choice in what we focus on because it has been predetermined for us.
For the photographer, the focus she chooses is intentional and prior to her efforts to digitally capture what she sees. Time is granted her to then decide what to include or exclude.
Our lives are much more confusing because we are bombarded with thoughts, views, issues, emotions, routines, schedules & deadlines. What is frustrating is that on top of this, we use the choice between a wide angle & close up lens backwards. Our perspective and context suffer greatly when this happens.
When our problems or struggles trap us, we use our close-up lens when we should be using our wide angle lens. We need to expand our view to gain perspective and to see options outside of our struggle to help us break through. We may learn that they are not as life threatening if we force ourselves out of the vortex that is consuming us.
Incredible sounding opportunities consume us when we look at them with our close up lens. Focused on the next steps needed to make it work, we forget to use our wide angle lens to see how it fits into our current circumstance. Most times, we don’t. We find ourselves without any perpsective. Without using our wide angle lens, we are destined to make a bad choice. Our close up lens fools us into believing that the incredible opportunity is our discovered winning lottery ticket.
The diversity we find when looking wide is that too many things fascinate us. Easily distracted we don’t accomplish much and get easily frustrated. Choosing our next job, project, or place to live are also examples where diversity overwhelm us. Again we are using the wrong lens. We need to be focusing on one small thing, using our close-up lens, to gain traction. We desperately need more context and depth rather than breadth and perspective in this case.
Problem solvers make this mistake all of the time. They proudly proclaim that their solution will solve a + b + c + j +r +z. Only to be disappointed when their solution leaves them in a similar place after much effort to implement. They are fascinated by their shiny wide-angle lens and misguidedly use it without discretion.
I have found that narrowing your focus is much more effective in creating more effective and longer-lasting solutions. Using your close-up lens brings you depth by forcing you to capture context. It’s the revealed nuances found in context that will strengthen your problem solving skills while solving one thing at a time will get you much further.
Are you conscious of the lens you use under what circumstances? What if you took a few minutes to use the opposite lens than what you are used to using? You might be surprised at what you will learn the first time you try.