TL;DR

This crucial technique will ensure that you continue moving in the right direction. And, scroll to the end for a valuable freebie.

 

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Greetings!

 

One technique I talk clients through on a regular basis is the simple practice of zooming out and zooming in. I personally practice this often myself. Let’s call it ZOZI for short (hey, you just witnessed me coining a new term! Guessing it’s not new).

 

As we’re living our day-to-day lives and navigating our way forward, we need ways to determine if, in fact, we’re moving “forward.”

 

Or, if not forward, at least moving in the “right” direction.

 

And, if we’re not sure what the right direction is, we probably have a fairly good idea what the wrong direction is, and that’s better than nothing.

 

Of course, this all implies that someone wants to “think directionally.” There are perhaps some reading this who are saying, “Why can’t I just live my life? Why do I have to be heading somewhere?”

 

Fair point. If that works well for you, then you can probably stop reading. 

 

For the rest of us, we do think in terms of navigating our way “forward,” even if this simply means to “maintain,” ie, maintaining the status quo. I may not want to climb to the top of some mountain–I may enjoy living at the base camp. I just want to keep this present situation working for me.

 

Either way, whether you’re wanting to hold steady and keep everything as is, OR, if you want to progress, develop, advance, and move forward in some way, then practicing ZIZO is crucial.

 

What is ZIZO?

 

So what is ZIZO? You’ve likely figured it out. It’s not rocket science (by the way, in my opinion, often the simplest ideas are the most powerful, and ironically the most easily dismissed–more on this in the near future).

 

Let’s start with Zoom Out (ZO). 

 

Every so often, we need to ZO. Why? To get a bird’s eye view of our lives, OR a particular part of our lives.

 

I’m full of metaphors. If you watch American football, it’s the difference between being down on the playing field and being way up high in the press box looking DOWN on the playing field.

 

The coaches can see all kinds of things up in the box that the players, and coaches, on the field can’t see as clearly, or maybe can’t see at all.

 

Every so often, then, we need to ZO and take a look.

 

What are we looking for, though?

 

Why ZO?

 

Again, there are different purposes for doing a ZO, but one thing we can do is EVALUATE and ASSESS. 

 

  > How are things going? 

  > Are things on track and on time? 

  > Where are we on “the map?”

  > Are we headed in the right direction?

  > Is our game plan being executed correctly?

  

If we do an effective ZO, then we can decide, based on the information we received, whether or not we need to make any ADJUSTMENTS.

 

Back to the football example, the offensive coordinator, watching the game from the coaches’ box, may see the other team’s linebacker as a weakness to exploit, so may call down to the field coach and recommend running some plays in that linebacker’s direction.

 

Or, before we all had our trusty GPS, we had to rely on a paper map–the kind you could never re-fold back to its original shape!

 

We charted our trip on these maps, and every so often would have to consult the map to make sure we didn’t deviate from our route, AND to see the progress we were making–”are we there yet??”

 

What about ZI?

 

Then after we took a look at the big picture, we zoomed back IN, and re-engaged with life “on ground level.”

 

And it’s this rhythm of ZO-ZI-ZO-ZI that helps us calibrate and recalibrate to find balance and direction.

 

We need the feedback of ZO to make any adjustments if necessary, or to confirm that all is well, AND we need to re-engage with ZI to keep things moving down the road.

 

That’s all for now. We’ll pick this again in the future.

 

Value-Add Opportunity

 

I’m offering what I call a “Vision Session” for anyone wanting to ZO and consider where they’re headed. Having someone to bounce your ideas off of is super valuable. Let’s make sure you have a compelling future vision.

 

And, there is no cost, and no weird pressure to sign up for anything. This is a real coaching session that typically would cost a few bucks. But for now, it’s a no-strings, no-risk service to you.

 

For more information, check out this page:

https://www.seanpatrickcox.com/vision-session/