Zoom Out, Zoom In

Dear Reader,

I heard this phrase, “zoom out, zoom in,” used recently by Kelly McGonigal, a health psychologist and senior teacher at Stanford University, in her online course “The Neuroscience of Change.” She was talking about effective ways to create new habits.

Her suggested first step is to identify a goal – what you want to change. Seems like a good place to start, doesn’t it?

The second step she recommends is to identify the most important motivation, or deepest guiding value behind wanting to attain the goal. That’s the zooming out part! Uncovering that guiding value gives you a big picture awareness to motivate you into action when the going gets tough. In personal development circles, this might be called your “why.”

The final step is to identify exactly what action you need to take to achieve the goal, so you have a specific plan. That’s “zooming in” to focus on the details. The idea is to make sure the chosen actions support the bigger value behind wanting the goal.

Zoom out, zoom in.

Although the context here is change, and creating new habits, I think the ability to shift back and forth between a big picture view and the details is a crucial life skill. Think in terms of shifting between a soul perspective and an everyday perspective. The ability to fluidly switch from one to the other, and the awareness of which perspective is called for in any situation, and any given time, can take plenty of living to master.

We often get trapped in the details, don’t we? Hence the old saying “can’t see the forest for the trees.” The unfortunate result is that we often make choices that are not connected to our souls, to who we really are.

On the other hand…

Some of us actually get trapped in the big picture view! We love to hang out in the soul view and all that goes with it, but struggle to engage effectively with the details of everyday life. Bills? Appointments? Plans? What?!

What Professor McGonigal suggests, and what I encourage for my clients, is to start with a connection to the big picture and from that grounded awareness, give equal weight to the daily choices we make and details we consider.

Integration. Balance.

As we integrate these two views, we find ourselves starting to flow back and forth more organically than before – and usually having more fun as we do!

So where do you tend to get stuck, dear reader? In the big picture? Or in the details?

Here’s wishing you a happy start to summer, with plenty of zooming out, and zooming in!

I honor your loving heart,

John