I wrote last week of how I’d been thinking of life more in terms of the ‘Big Picture’. But that is not the way I usually think. When I’ve been paying attention to the way I think, I’ve noticed that I get caught up in the details of things. The parts rather than the whole. I will focus on one thing at a time, trying to make it perfect before I move on to the next task.
This can be hard to work with at times. It means that I sometimes find it hard to move between projects unless I have completed one. It might mean that I forget something that is glaringly wrong because I’ve been working so hard on looking for the little things that are wrong.
But I like looking at the small details so that I can fix them. Sometimes it is the smallest things which can do the most damage. But at the same time doing something little can make a huge difference and go a long way towards making the situation better.
I guess the final reason I like looking at details is because they remind me of how deliberate the world is. There is very little which is an accident and when you look at the big things it can be hard to remember how much is really going on to make something work.
It takes all kinds of people to make a world and whether you think in terms of the big picture or the small details neither will stop you getting a task done. Maybe you always fit into one of these categories or perhaps you are parts of both and there is no way which is wrong, nor is there a way that is right. I’ve just been thinking about the way I think and thought it might be worth sharing.
THOUGHTS OF A STUDENT 