There is a big difference between where people fail to see the forest for the trees and where they actually achieve success. One of my former colleagues and myself have both lost their jobs in recent times, both because of a bad economy and also due to a lack of good business opportunities. Both of us saw great opportunities in areas of growth and expansion for our businesses and were eager to take on new challenges. However, both of us also failed to recognise the vital importance of maintaining clarity about what our goals are in life, and this is what allowed us to make the right decisions and meet the challenges that we were faced with. In the process of trying to grow and expand both of our businesses, we discovered something very important: We must avoid the trap of seeing failure as a failure of priorities!
It is where people fail to see the forest for the trees where they ultimately end up failing in life. When we look at the world as a whole, we can see how many interconnected problems there are. However, most of us only see the problems in individual industries, or in certain geographical locations. Unfortunately, our sense of self worth and confidence tends to be quite narrow when it comes to our own health and wellbeing. Where we fail to see the forest for the trees is where we fail to see the opportunity for growth and development within ourselves.
Many people spend vast amounts of time and energy convincing themselves that they can manage all of life's little bumps and obstructions. The reality is that most of the things that cause stress and frustration simply cannot be avoided. Neither is it necessary to completely remove all obstacles in order to succeed. But where people fail to see the forest for the trees is where they focus on their own weaknesses and failures rather than the potential opportunities that lie within them. This is a huge mistake, as there are countless opportunities available to people just by being realistic and understanding that they need to make sacrifices in order to achieve their goals.
This is perhaps the one thing that all tree huggers have in common. Realistic thinking and realistic strategies are required. Where people fail to see the forest for the trees is when they look at their own situation objectively and try to eliminate every possible variable. They fail to acknowledge the possibility that something might go wrong, and they also fail to recognise that the problem lies in their strategy, not in the tree itself. This means that a lot of tree huggers are either unaware of this potential problem, or they are too comfortable making assumptions which will invariably lead to failures.
Where people fail to see the forest for the trees is where they are too emotionally invested in their own success. Far too often, people spend far too much time and energy focusing on how badly things are going for them and fail to acknowledge that they might actually be making the problem worse. If you are committed to achieving a goal and you believe that you are doing everything right, then it may be possible that your approach is correct. But if you have already allowed personal failures to affect you and your approach to life, then it is likely that you will also allow failures of other people to effect the way you approach and spend your time.
So what can one do to avoid this blind spot? The first thing to do is look objectively at your situation. It is easy to say that you want to achieve X and then go out and get it, but unless you have done the hard work required to get to where people fail to see the forest for the trees, it is likely that you will not get very far. Look for the root causes of your problems. Once you have identified these causes, you can then take steps to eliminate them.