I recently had someone comment on my blog about a mistake I made in my grammar. I definitely appreciated it because no one wants something that has your name attached to it to have any recognizable mistakes if you can help it. What was interesting about this person's comment, however, was that he felt the mistake made it hard for the rest of the blog to have any credibility. While I can see where this person is coming from in some respect, the actual nature of the blog had nothing to do with grammatical mistakes or how to make sure your work is always perfect. In my opinion, the mistake that person made was the classic case of missing the forest for the trees and letting truly inconsequential stuff play a much bigger part in one's life than should be. Often there are those who take a myopic view of things and make decisions based on what they can only clearly see in front of them, as opposed to thinking about the larger, overarching purpose and view of something. This particular blog was about how to have the entrepreneurial mindset to be successful and this person was hung up on the difference between "your" and "you're." This person was caught up on a "tree" that might have been a little ugly and worn rather than looking at the entire body of the "forest" that may have been beautiful. He's clearly what I would call a Tree person - someone who focuses on smaller things before they take into context the bigger picture. On the other hand, however, Forest People are those who are more strategic thinkers and are always focused on the long term and what's truly MOST important, rather than just what's in front there. There are number advantages to being a Forest Person:
BETTER ROOT-CAUSE ANALYSIS
Tree People have a tendency to only look at what's immediately in front of them to understand a problem and, sometimes, very quickly jump to conclusions about the nature of problem. Therefore, Tree People typically try to fix problems with solutions that may not be anywhere near what is needed. Due to the fact these individuals are often very short-sighted in their scope of thinking, they immediately associate the easiest answer to a problem that appears apparent. If you don't get a project completed on time, it's because you're lazy. If you are over-weight, it's because you eat bad. If you don't get good grades in school, it's because you aren't smart. While there is often some truth to this, many times, there are deeper, more complicated explanations to problems and those who are constantly looking at the entire forest understand how to dissect a situation appropriately to uncover what they need to identify the best solution to the issue, not just the band-aid solution that seems to present itself immediately.
BETTER LIFE DECISIONS
Tree People generally are those who make knee-jerk decisions based on how they are feeling at that specific moment in time. Because they often think about how this particular "tree" makes them feel, they make decisions in life based on that single issue, rather than considering that issue in relation to the entire scenario. These are the type of people who generally seem to have "issues" with people all the time and are always pointing out what others are doing wrong. They typically aren't willing to compromise in various situations because that's not "who they are." They often jump from job to job or relationship to relationship because they can't get along with someone or are "bored" with what they do/have. They don't think about the long term ramifications of always changing so frequently and not truly committing to something for a long time. We all would like to do fun and exciting stuff as much as possible. Tree People are those who probably do it way more than they should, while Forest People are more calculated in when and with whom they do these things because they are always thinking about the big picture.
BETTER ABILITY TO HANDLE DISAPPOINTMENT
Tree people often are those individuals who can get very down on themselves when things don't go their way. They look at a mistakes they made or a rejection by someone as the end of their world and, many times, they cannot get over it. Forest people, on the other hand, realize that so many things that occur to us in life are insignificant when placed in the context of the course of ours lives and the universe. So that young lady rejected you at the club? It's okay, there are many more out there. So you just didn't get that promotion that you were working so hard for? Don't worry, there are many more promotions out there for you to go after. You're not quite where you want to be in life at age 50? If you live a healthy lifestyle and make it to 80, you still have a whole 30 years to make it up. Forest People are always looking at what something means in the context of the most important things in life, not just what is occurring at that very moment. This allows them to weather storms so much better due to their positive attitude and focus on what needs to be done to improve the situation, rather than bemoan it.
While I'm not a camper and would consider sleeping in a forest as one of the worst things that I could ever spend time doing (my apologies to all you outdoorsy people out there), I can still appreciate what it teaches us about life. The forest is big and can be scary at times if you get lost in it - somewhat comparable to life. And while there is no silver bullet about how to best succeed through it, those who are consistently taking in the entire view of the forest/life have a much better chance of figuring it out, rather than those who are only focused on tree to tree.
Ken Middleton is an Account Manager at TEKsystems that specializes in IT staffing and services. He is a graduate of UNC-Pembroke and current MBA student at Scheller College of Business at Georgia Tech (Graduate in May! - Whoop Whoop!). You can follow his daily quotes of inspiration and motivation on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIN
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