When I started following bitcoin culture every once and a while I'd hear someone say "zoom out". It would usually be in response to someone else talking about a dip in fiat price. You can take this simple comment and apply it many other places. Of course it can be applied to investments, or anything long term. The old phrase "Rome wasn't built in a day". Or if you go to the economics side of things you often hear about "time preference" from the Austrians(which is a deep thought provoking topic btw).
We live in a very short term mindset culture. We want everything instantly. We have little patience. I'm not a kid anymore and I can tell you that this impatience culture has increased in my life time. My parents noticed it of course but when I was young I thought they were just old and out of touch. Now I see their vision and wisdom more clearly. Have you ever wondered why time seems to move faster the older you get? When I was a kid it seemed like I would never get to summer break. It seemed like Christmas took forever to get here. It seemed like I would never get my driver's license. Today it seems like 5 years passes by in no time. It seems like I blink and a new month is here. Time seems to function differently the more time I've have spent living.
I think this is the zoom out effect. Zooming out is a very important practice. Zooming out allows you to take a higher view. Just like climbing to the top of the mountain allows you to see things you can't see in the valley, zooming out allows you to see how the struggles and triumphs in life led you to where you are now. If you have a bad day, you make a dumb mistake, or someone is unkind. Zoom out. Is this an anomaly, or is it a pattern? With only a short time frame it is hard to see, but over time the truth reveals itself if you care to take the time to look. Do you hate your job or work? Maybe this is a rough patch. Maybe you need to take some time off and zoom out. Maybe something changed that you missed. Maybe it is an internal change and not external. It can be hard to see this without zooming out.
When we zoom out we can gain context. When we take time to reflect and ask ourselves tough questions we can see lies we may have believed. Some of us tend to battle negative self-talk. Some of us see our faults and failures and then magnify them. We zoom in on each event that is negative losing sight of the context. Zooming out helps provide context. Others fail to see their areas for improvement. They are full of self confidence to the point of being blind to warning signs. They need to zoom out as well. Sometimes even zooming out isn't enough. Sometimes you need someone else to help you with getting a new perspective.
I've been meaning to write about my recent experiences with refocusing, @siggy47 encouraged me to do it and here it is. When I started thinking about zooming out today I wasn't thinking about what I'm going to tell you, but the further into this I got the more clear the path became. I've been in a dark place mentally for some time. Most people that know me would not notice it. My wife is probably the only one that saw it. I don't feel like I'm out of the woods yet, but I can see the path forward and I'm walking it now. Back in February @elvismercury mentioned JBP's self-authoring program in a thought provoking post by @Fabs. I had checked it out before and almost started it but for some reason I didn't do it. Elivsmercury's comment was the reminder I needed. About a month ago I took a weekend and did the Future Authoring exercises. I highly recommend it to pretty much anyone. One thing it did was help me zoom out and reset my focus and thinking.
I realized that while I have been feeling burned out and down, I really needed to take time and zoom out. There have been some rough things I've experienced in past few years that really hit me hard. In many ways I'm just tired. But it is easy to let hard times lead into self-pity. In-action then leads to more in-action. This is a vicious cycle that only leads down into dark places. Taking a weekend to focus on figuring out my path forward was what I needed. The first day was not fun. There were many questions that I responded to that made me feel worse about myself. I was tempted to stop the whole process a couple times. But, I pushed through to the next day. Then a light bulb came on for me. I needed to zoom out and when I did I recalled some daily practices that I used to follow. I had let slip. I realized that I had accomplished many goals over the years but hadn't refocused on clear definable goals. I also realized that I have been trying to do to many things at once, failing to complete them, and then feeling defeated when I think about all I hadn't done. I realized that I had stop doing things that had worked for me in the past. When I saw this it was like a door opened and I could see a path out of a dark cave.
The simple way to describe what I did was that I zoomed out. I took time to turn off all distractions and focus on looking ahead and behind with a wider scope. If you are in a rough patch right now I encourage you to talk to someone. My path forward really started with talking to my wife. Maybe you should check out the Self Authoring program. Maybe just try to zoom out and realize what you have done over the last 10 years. Are you excited about where you're going? Do you know where you're going? Its always changing but every so often try to zoom out for a bit.
this territory is moderated
292 sats \ 0 replies \ @Taft 1 Apr
"Zoom out" is a fantastic perspective. Your reflections have made me think deeply, and I wish I had considered this during my dark times. Thank God, things are going well for me now. However, I will save your reflections for the future. Thank you for this post.
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When I want to zoom out I read this note I saved in my phone as an idea for something I wanted to write for my kids:
Time is not infinite for humans; we are merely surfing on a giant rock, spiraling through the cosmos for an undetermined number of trips around the sun. Individually, a blip on the long tail of the arrow of time. Collectively, who knows?
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Then a light bulb came on for me. I needed to zoom out and when I did I recalled some daily practices that I used to follow. I had let slip.
This has been on my mind a lot, too, but in a slightly different way, I think. There have been things that I have historically done that have been really important to me (reading fiction is a good example; and watching movies that are joyous and funny and stupid) that I just got out of the habit of doing. That's not necessarily bad, but I think there was some important nutrient I was getting from those actions that I sorely needed, and I didn't notice how much I needed it till I was super deficient.
So it's good advice. Writing it up has probably helped some people.
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I hope so
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Cool thanks for sharing. I like to use self reflecting. When you zoom out. Rank areas of your life based on time spent and progress twitter goals. It’s a game changer!
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If you're in a rough spot and the authoring programme is on your roadmap, but it seems like too much atm
Try watching the oldest JP YouTube videos, they are easy to watch/listen and one can gleam so much information/therapy from them
They also lead into authoring as you follow the timeline
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100 sats \ 1 reply \ @davidw 1 Apr
Glad you could accomplish a breakthrough in just a weekend. For me it usually takes more.
One thing many people do is put themselves under unnecessary stress, even if low levels, in order to get things done. I am almost always one of those people. Telling myself “it’s just this week”, “next week will be different” but of course something else always comes along to trigger a similar response.
Zooming out, and taking time to walk the dog (metaphorical or not) is so underrated. Stress & overwork is something that has been normalised but is not natural for our bodies. Particularly as these days most of us are not stressed or tired from physical exertion, but the mental gymnastics. Which means sleep is often harder not easier, when we’re exhausted. Since we never ‘put the problem down’. Even if work is source of enjoyment and fulfilment for us, we still create stress responses and still need downtime like you highlight.
Found so many new insights or approaches that I would not have otherwise discovered had I been just keeping our head down. Very solid advice.
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Well, it was much longer in the making but that weekend was when the dam broke.
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100 sats \ 1 reply \ @siggy47 1 Apr
Great post. I feel like the advice to zoom out when talking about my own mental state is almost always the solution. My lack of perspective can get extreme when things aren't going well. Maybe everyone feels that way. It sounds like you're on a good path.
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Thanks. I think I'm headed in the right direction
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I have been trying to do too many things at once, failing to complete them, and then feeling defeated when I think about all I hadn't done.
I spend a lot of time in this mode at work. I feel overwhelmed with the number of different projects I'm supposed to be working on and it freezes me in inaction. I end up procrastinating and hanging out on SN, instead of chipping away at part of it.
When we're finally approaching a deadline, I just push all but that project to the side and focus on it and I actually get a lot done.
Other times, I might just pick a smaller task (although I never really know how long anything is going to take) and tell myself to just take however much time I need to get it done. Usually, it's much easier than I expected and I feel a lot of relief clearing it from the deck.
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Yeah, I resemble this remark.
Breaking things down always helps me get moving. Getting to done on even a small piece can help unblock the mind.
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if I zoom out I see my list of uncompleted projects so much larger than my completed projects and I get sad, but no worries, I'm not going to stress myself about it. It is not possible to do it all.
About doing many things at once, I try to avoid it now. And focus on one by one. It turns out our brain is bad at multitasking. When we switch between tasks, we need time to refocus. Multitasking is only good when you can do one of the things without thinking too much, like automatically.
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I agree, but it's so much easier to do zero tasks at once.
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65 sats \ 0 replies \ @quark 1 Apr
Can't beat that LOL. Good idea. I'm going to rest a bit ;)
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This was something I did as a kid, whenever I made a mistake I would just stand there thinking internally at my mess and looking at it for some seconds until I snapped back to reality. I always saw this as a defense mechanism.
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Good perspective. Bookmarked.
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I need to do this more often myself. You are so right about time. Thanks for sharing
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33 sats \ 0 replies \ @007 2 Apr
Yes. Time preference and context is everything!
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33 sats \ 0 replies \ @suraz 2 Apr
This is deep and best way to practice in hard times. Saved.. Thanks alot :)
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Wise words. I can definitely relate to what you're saying, and I've done that exercise myself many times. It's often true that we need to take a step back and look at things from an outsider's perspective to really understand what's going on. I often ask myself, "What would I think of this situation if I were someone else?
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