I was talking with a friend last night, about why some people focus on details and others are big picture focused. She suggested that fear drove people to details. Fear of the bigger picture, and the real problems or issues that seem too much to handle. We were talking about politics but it seemed an apt insight into every day behaviors too.
As human beings we cling to order and solidity. Even if we're free spirits, we need some kind of grounding to feel safe and secure. As I've learned in my Kaizen Muse creativity coaching, our brains are still hardwired as if we were living in caves (funny, I wrote cafes first!) in the wilderness. Our amygdala and cortex are in a constant tug and war between fight/flight and reason. In fact, so much so that the cortex will invent reasons for our instinctive fight/flight responses to everyday occurrences.
So... why details? We distract ourselves by focusing on minutia that doesn't really matter. We turn from the big scary monsters that face us - in politics, relationships, work, dreams, desires - and talk ourselves into thinking that small seemingly manageable details are the real issue at hand.
It's hard to break a habit that's actually biologically programmed. But really, why do some of us get the bigger picture and flee from the details, while others of us can't seem to find our way out of the details?
Do you think this might be evolution at work? Are big picture people one more tiny step away from our animal origins?
May your day be filled with the Magic Medicine of interesting questions to ponder.
No comments:
Post a Comment