One of my challenges is being able to constantly flip between the big picture and the detailed picture. And I know others can struggle with this too.

I’ve been neck deep in spreadsheets, which is not exactly my most favorite place to be. And then I get yanked over to dealing with someone who felt ignored. Then over to that email conversation I forgot to reply to yesterday.

Sometimes it feels like I’ve done nothing but look at details.

When this happens, I find it very useful to go back and ground myself in the big WHY.

  • Why am I so passionate about this organization?
  • Who do I want to be in how I interact with people and make decisions?
  • What are the big priorities here, even multi-year?

Yes, the details do matter. But if I lose perspective of that bigger picture, I’ll likely go the wrong direction.

Because the big things matter even more.