Jumping into the River of Your Big Picture
Senia Maymin, PhD
I teach Senior Leaders/C-suite how to WIN at getting their next job | Fractional Chief People Officer | Stanford PhD | Data-driven, ROI-focused, people-first leader | Board Presentations, HR Strategy, M&A
How do you find your own personal big picture that helps you know whether you’re moving in the right direction?
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Let's start at the beginning. Imagine that you're standing at the top of a cliff. It's a little further down to the river than you are used to, but you know you can do it. Then imagine jumping. Then swimming. The water is cool but refreshing. Suddenly you have a big aha. This is my big picture. This is what I'm supposed to do with the next five, 10, 20 years of my life.
Many times people will say, “I know I'm going in the general direction of my big picture," but they don't know exactly what the big picture is. Today is about seeing your own big picture.
We’re going to use 3 approaches: time, space, and the idea fairy.
Two Types of Time
When you mull over the questions, “What is my big picture? Where am I going in my life?” there are two different kinds of time that cab help.
The first is time intentionally set aside to think. You could, for example, plan on going for a walk for an hour twice a week to think about your future.
The second is do-nothing time. Do-nothing time could be lying in a hammock and looking up at the sky. It could be taking a shower, just letting the water run over you. It could be the moments right before you fall asleep. It could also be when you are zoning out in front of a show that you’ve seen before.
Know that do-nothing time is critical. Guy Claxton writes about this in his book, Hare Brain, Tortoise Mind. There's a lot of research about how thinking goes on in the back of our minds. If we put a problem back there, it can get mulled over even when we're not consciously working on it.
Space
People often get inspired by being in a specific space. There was a time when I was working on writing a novel. I read that it’s a good idea to fabricate a place like a location in your book, put on an item of clothing that your character might wear, light a candle with a scent that your character might be smelling. There are a lot of important buildings that are sacred spaces. What is an inspiring space that you can create for yourself? I looked outside when I said that. Maybe your inspiring space is part of your yard. Maybe it's even a small space, a tiny space for yourself, like a kid making a fort underneath a table. You can go to your space and have time to yourself.
Before the last few months, you may have gone to a particular café for your deep thinking. Some people even go for long drives to open up their minds to the big picture about what they want to contribute to themselves, their families, and the world.
The Idea Fairy
This thought came to me from stories I read to my children. How do you use it? This is not a business concept, unless you remember Ben Zander’s rule number 6: “Don’t take yourself so seriously.” The idea fairy represents several different ways to get ideas that can steer you towards your main priority.
- Go to an online conference. Sometimes when you're listening to people speak, you may get ideas. These conferences or even Ted Talks can give you ideas that are a little different from the ones you encounter every day.
- Talk to a friend, preferably someone you haven’t seen for awhile.
- Join a mastermind group. Get together with a group of people and just tell them, "Here's my challenge, here's what I'm thinking through." Maybe you already have group of people that you meet regularly for work. Consider expanding it to include people who don't think the way you do.
- Get into a book about something you don’t know much about.
All of these can be idea fairies, nudging you to open up your mind a little.
What else, besides scheduled time, do-nothing time, curated space, and the idea fairy could give you more ideas than you had two minutes ago?
Photo by Drew Farwell on Unsplash
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