The Big Picture
Are you seeking a way to stay focused on your goals?
Why are you reading this? What are you hoping for?
These questions may seem silly but take some time to reread and think about them.
Again.
And again.
You’ve stayed focused on this series of posts for a reason.
You’re reading this guide for a reason.
Your reason could be big or small. It could be related to your job or your personal life. It could be random or totally planned. Regardless of your reason – or reasons – the vital thing to acknowledge is that you are looking to sharpen up your focus.
That is your big picture. It’s your why. It’s precisely what you’ll use as you proceed through this guide and ultimately, through life from here on.
Knowing your big picture can help you stay focused on your goals, or just about anything else.
Defining your big picture is about knowing what you want. We all start with a big-picture goal (or goals). When we get caught up in the day-to-day, however, and we let life distract us, that big picture gets painted over by lots of other little pictures. We end up with a collage of small goals, big goals, and goals that contradict one another!
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Before you let any negative thoughts creep into your head – or start shouting at you – stop.
These interruptions are normal for most of us. This is what our brains do. The brain is not something that has been developed to focus on one thing for a pro-longed period of time. Our lives today are also so complex, regardless of how simple, or busy, you think your life is, that we have a lot of things to think about during the course of a day. That is just life. I am going to guess that you are reading this guide because you want to take some control over that hodgepodge of thoughts.
If, by the way, you are interested in learning about some simple meditation techniques to help you calm your mind, you might be interested in my meditation guide: Thoughts on Meditation
If that is the case, it is time to scrap that collage and start with a blank canvas. This canvas needs to illustrate your big-picture – your ultimate destination. Your big picture needs to be untouched to capture and retain your focus.
To define your big picture with focus in the foreground, start with these three steps.
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Figure out What You Like
What are your interests and preferences; how do they tie into your big dreams? It may sound obvious, but your dreams only come from your interests. If you want to be a writer, you aren’t going to set goals to learn how to fly a plane, right? Your goals and your interests go hand in hand.
If you already know what you like and want, that’s great! If not, there are plenty of ways to figure it out. Begin by thinking about who you’ve been and what you’ve enjoyed your entire life. Have you always gravitated toward athletics or numbers? Do you like reading books, or do you prefer to be exploring a forest?
You can also try taking personality tests. There are plenty of resources out there for you, including the Myers-Briggs personality test or the DISC assessment.
Do not for one moment believe that either of these assessments is hard-core truth with results set in concrete.
They are not. I include these only to give you some ideas to think about if you are unsure what you really would enjoy doing. I know you might be someone who has a different idea every week or even every day.
I suspect that those ideas will tend to fall into similar categories. These assessments can help you identify the different areas that interest you. That is it. OK?
Have you ever lost points on an assignment because you forgot to do something?
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It is entirely possible that if you took one or both assessments today and then took the same assessment in three months, you would get somewhat different scores. I do not think they would be totally different, but there are some things that would be similar. What are those points?
If you take the Myers- Briggs, please do not take the words Judging and Perceiving at face value. The words have a very different meaning for the Myers-Briggs than how you would use them in conversation.
This is one place you can use to take a free Myers – Briggs assessment:
This is a shorter quiz which also has a video that you might find helpful.
You can find a link to the DISC here:
or here:
This blog will give you an idea of how the two assessments compare:
Have you ever lost points on an assignment because you forgot to do something?
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Ask friends and family members to define you in their own words. Ask for their input. They may have some ideas of what you’re like that you didn’t even think about on your own!
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Ask Yourself Questions
… and they can’t be the easy ones. Now that you know what you like and what you’re shooting for, you need to understand exactly how determined you are and what you want your end goal to be. Start by asking yourself how you want to leave this world. If you were to leave tomorrow, what would you want people to remember you as? Basically, you want to get to the crux of the type of legacy you’d like to leave behind. This will take time, so grab a pen and paper and get to work! No cheating!
Then, try to think of words you’d like to associate yourself with. Do you want to be known for being creative or analytical? Do you view yourself as a problem-solver or an emotion-based person? Think about the words that resonate with you most. Again, write them down. List them out. Treat these as tiny pixels of your big picture frame.
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Get a Little Creative (and Ambitious)
This last step comes off as unrealistic, but it’s actually a significant step in the process. When you’re cooking up a big-picture goal for yourself, you need to start off by being a little far-fetched with your ideas. Remove all limitations (and some realities) and say, “What do I want to do if the options are limitless?”
We’re taking time and resources and money out of the equation here because although they’re important, we need to get to the core of what you seek. Of course, you may need to alter your plan a bit, and you may not be able to shoot exactly for this far-fetched idea, but it’s an excellent way to filter through the possibilities and get to the crux of your goals. Let’s say you end up realizing that your ultimate goal would be to own a car dealership. That may not happen right away, but this will help steer you (pun intended) in the right direction.
Once you have an idea of your big picture, it’s time to ask yourself the big questions. What matters to me?
You’ll want to whittle down the swirling possibilities and seemingly endless options and pinpoint what matters most to you. It’s as if you were to line up several different contenders for your big picture, analyze them, critique them, and decide on one big picture.
How to decide the goals for your big picture
Easier said than done, though, so you may want to come up with a process for this. Begin by listing out all the things that matter to you, irrespective of your big-picture goal(s). Here are a few ideas to get you started:
- Professional life
- Family life
- Money
- Job stability
- Health
- Fitness
- Hobbies
- Art/creative passions
- Doing what you love to do every day
- Location
- Lifestyle
There are plenty of other deciding factors, but these are some key ones. List out the thing that matters most to you.
Once you’ve listed them out and had a second to think about each of them, try to rank them in order of importance. Eventually, narrow it down to 5. This takes us back to the 5/25 Rule, a la Warren Buffet. Full circle!
These 5 themes should be held constant in your mission to finding and retaining focus. Over time, they may change, but for now, you should hold your big-picture goal to these 5 things. That way, the big picture that matters most will be based on smaller things that also matter a lot to you.
If you are still reading, I want you to know I am grateful for that. I appreciate your reading my words and I hope you find them helpful. I hope you find another post of mine helpful as well. Thank you for reading.
I started a new Facebook group last November. It really is brand new. It is a private group with the goal of creating a safe place for adult students to get support and ask questions. I have ideas for things I might do in the future, but I will be guided by the desires of the group members. Please check it out. I would hope you would like to join and help me build the group into something useful.
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Have you ever lost points on an assignment because you forgot to do something?
My assignment checklist can help you remember the details.
Check it out! It is FREE!!!!
Remember that you are supported, and you can do this!
Until next week,
Valerie
Providing information and tools to help harried adult college students earn their degrees without losing their sanity.
updated 9 February 2025
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