Imagine yourself on a top of a high mountain, with a digital camera in your hand. Imagine yourself capturing the beautiful and blossoming flowers on the field as you are on top of the mountain. Take a comfortable position, adjust your camera in a 90-degree position in alignment with the perspective you just discovered. Feel free, capture the beauty. Let your mind explore the world around you. Take a look at the sky, see the bird? See the forming cloud? What do they represent to you? Create your picture and let’s get started with the editing.
Teenage-hood is one exciting part of human life. I will call a spade a spade and call the teenagehood the most exciting part of human life. In this period, we can explore the world around us, capture it the way we want, add some motions to the picture or give a kind of music that soothes our taste. It’s such an exciting part of life!
Big picture thinking as a teenager entails thinking beyond what we can see with our sight, hear with our ears or feel with our hands. It is a picture of the mind. It is an excellent picture developed in our mind that sticks closely to our memories, plans and journals.
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Our dreams and aspiration, our goal and plans all together form our big picture. Pictures reveal our identity. Pictures keep moments alive.
In this post, we will be discussing five (5) ways to develop big picture thinking.
1. Have a Vision
It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.
Henry David Thoreau
Set a vision for yourself as early as possible, this will go along way and set you on the path of greatness. You are not too young to be great. You are not too young to get your vision on the go. You are not too young to start fulfilling your dreams. Let your vision be bigger than your current state. The future is infinite, do not limit yourself. Believe in your vision because if you don’t know, no one else will believe in it. Feel free to think big.
“You have to dream big before doing big”
Saif Rehman
“Our mind is powerful. Think Bigger. Dream bigger. Act bigger – and you’ll live a much bigger version of your life!”
Farshad Asl
2. Develop Your Goals
Having a vision is not enough. Set up goals to help in step by step achievement of your vision. Your goals are your greatest weapons; they can help you bring the world at your feet. If you must develop big picture thinking, you must be serious about the establishment of your goals.
Find yourself someone you can think with, brainstorm with and bounce ideas around with. It’s a lot easier to think about bigger picture goals and a long term plan when you have other people to discuss with and to challenge your thinking. Seek first to understand their perspective and form a mutually beneficial relationship. It’s a win-win.
Joel Garfinkle
According to Joel Garfinkle’s opinion, we can deduce that people around us can contribute to our big picture thinking. One’s association can affect one’s success and achievement. One thinking big must ensure he or she has friends or companions with big picture thinking also. Attract people with like minds so you will not have cause to be distracted.
3. Set Focus
Without focus, one will get blurry pictures. To capture a high-quality image, one must ensure focus is put in place. Focus on your vision, aspirations and goals. Distraction is your greatest enemy; it will weaken your weapons and make you feel powerless if care is not taken. Set your gaze on your vision and goals. Learn to put things right at an early stage of life, in order to make adulthood easier. You are setting a path for the future, do it well.
We live in a world cluttered with various kinds of information- information consisting of both relevant and irrelevant ones. Identify relevant information and ideas that can contribute to your vision. Avoid adding junk to your mind.
4. Acquire Knowledge
The world of books is the most remarkable creation of man; nothing else that he builds ever lasts. Monuments fall; nations perish; civilizations grow old and die out. After an era of darkness, new races build others; but in the world of books are volumes that live on still as young and fresh as the day they were written, still telling men’s hearts of the hearts of men centuries dead. — Clarence Day. (Ben Carson, 2000)
Knowledge keeps you informed. You must acquire knowledge about your vision in order to capture the big picture. Books contain an accumulation of knowledge, read them. Reading about our desire interest can expose us to a greater height we never could imagine. Through reading, we will be to develop an upgraded version of what successful people have done in our field.
Knowledge is the key that unlocks all the doors. You can be green-skinned with yellow polka dots and come from Mars, but if you have knowledge that people need, instead of beating you, they’ll beat a path to your door. (Ben Carson, 2000)
In this 21st century, reading is not the only medium to get information, as teenagers, we should make use of our YouTube video and videos in general. The internet is full of information. Acquiring relevant knowledge about your field of study, academic or career can make you stand out amidst the crowd. You will be able to think bigger dreams, achieve bigger results.
First, we cannot overload the human brain. This divinely created brain has fourteen billion cells. If used to the maximum, this human-computer inside our heads could contain all the knowledge of humanity from the beginning of the world to the present and still have room left over.
Second, not only can we not overload our brain – we also know that our brain retains everything. I often hear a saying that “The brain acquires everything that we encounter.” The difficulty does not come with the input of information, but getting it out. Sometimes we “file” information randomly of little importance, and it confuses us. (Ben Carson, 2000).
Forrester Research estimates one minute of online video equates to approximately 1.8 million written words. In addition, 90 percent of information transmitted to the brain is visual, and visuals are processed 60,000 times faster in the brain than text. This indicates visual education aids like video can improve learning styles and increase the rate at which we retain information. (Michal Tsur, 2014).
Watch relevant videos to maintain the big picture thinking, doing this, you are adding motion to your pictures, you are developing wings for yourself. In no time, you will soar high in the sky, leaving wanderings in the mind of people on how big you have become.
5. Be Intentional
Be intentional about everything you do. Intentionality brings us to the consciousness of who we are. Step into the future with a high sense of intentionality. The world is big enough to accommodate your vision.
Be intentional about the words you speak. Speak life to yourself; speak greatness and big wins into your life. Be intentional about how you live your life. Master the steps of great people.
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Work in alignment with your purpose. Your purpose is your guide, maximize it.
Be intentional about your self-worth. Package and brand yourself the best way you can. Set a sense of high self-worth for yourself. Rule your world as the king or queen you are.
Big picture thinking is what you need to remain at the top of your potential. Do not give your environment or background permission to dictate who you are.
If you came from a poor background, that doesn’t make you poor. If you came from an abusive environment, that doesn’t make you abusive. No matter where you come from, whether from the ghetto or from the city, the slum or from the castle, develop a high sense of self-worth; knowing fully well that you can become everything and everything great you have visualized in your mind.
Thank you for reading. Got questions or contributions? Do not hesitate to use the comment section.
References
- https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/think-big
- https://www.smartbrief.com/original/2018/09/importance-big-picture-thinking
- https://www.huffpost.com/entry/research-confirms-video-i_b_5064181
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