The Devil Is In The Details - But Don't Let That Drown You
Even Angels Won't Come To Your Rescue
Do you sweat the small stuff or see the big picture?
A professor once wanted to demonstrate a certain insight to his students.
There was a large and sturdy glass jar on a table in front of him.
He slowly dropped some rocks through the jar’s big opening at the top.
He kept moving and turning the glass jar to ensure all the rocks got arranged in a way that made the best use of the available space…
…until the jar couldn’t hold the rocks anymore.
The professor then asked his students, “Is the jar full?”
The students said, yes.
The professor then took a bag of stones and started dropping them into the jar.
He carefully arranged them until the jar couldn’t hold them anymore.
The students were pleasantly surprised.
The professor then asked his students, “Is the jar full?”
The students said, yes, this time it is.
The professor then took a bag of pebbles and very carefully dropped them one by one into the jar…
…until the jar couldn’t hold the pebbles anymore.
The professor then asked his students, “What do you think?”
Amused, the students said it is indeed full now.
The professor just wouldn’t stop.
He went on and took a glass of water and gently poured it into the jar, until it couldn’t hold a drop more.
“How about now?”, he asked.
No response.
The students were really stumped this time.
Though their logic said the jar was full, they secretly believed the professor might just pull off another stunt.
And he did…
He took out a small packet of salt from his pocket and emptied it into the jar.
He then looked at this students.
One of them quickly said, “It’s not full yet, right?”
“Wrong. Now it is”, replied the professor with a smile.
I’ve coached a lot of teams in my 20+ years of professional career.
One common theme that really impacts people’s performance is they drown themselves in the details.
They get distracted by the small things, and later fret and fume.
They get bogged down, their morale gets impacted, and they finally start believing they aren’t good enough.
They hit a wall and get stuck.
See the chain reaction?
I’m not saying this to put anyone down.
They all come from a place of positive intention - they want to be the best in what they do, which is excellent.
But what I’ve experienced and seen is:
In pursuit of perfection, you lose sight of the progress you’ll actually need to make…
…and you indirectly end up impacting yourself, others, and the common goal you’re all working towards.
Professional life or work life, it’s the same.
Diving into the minute details is essential, but it has its time and place.
If you don’t start with the big picture, you will lose clarity, focus, and purpose.
Once you lack purpose, you even question the meaning of life.
How often do we sweat the small stuff in our lives instead of prioritizing what matters?
All the attention we give to trifle matters…
Putting our focus on destructive, distractive, and meaningless thoughts and things…
Draining our vital life energies that we struggle to recover from…
We try to fill our jars with salt or water first…
…and by the time we realize there isn’t enough room for the pebbles, stones, and rocks…
…we’ve no zest for life left in us.
What is your focus right now?
The rocks or the salt? :)