For lunch yesterday I planned to cook a yummy batch of risotto but found myself unable to begin without first determining which Arborio rice to use: bulk or the fancy stuff. I was ignoring the fact that in a risotto the rice itself is among the fine details. The broth and added vegetables account for the majority of taste. I should have been more worried about the bigger picture.
It's easy to ignore a room full of elephants. At one time or another, we all do it. Human nature.
Too often we stress over the finer details at the exclusion of the bigger picture. Perhaps our speakers are woefully inadequate but we find ourselves instead upgrading a cable, or paying attention to any number of minor details while elephants lounge about.
The other day I had to laugh at myself. I stressed over minor punctuation and grammar in the first paragraph of a multiple page product description. "Just write!" I yelled at myself. "No one cares about the first paragraph of a product description. It's the details they're interested in."
The finer details are in the end what makes the difference between good and great. Yet, too much focus on details without first addressing the big picture means we may never get to the point where the details matter.
One foot in front of the other gets us to where we wish to go.
