Myopia
Guiding Question: How is myopia limiting my capacity for effective freedom?
Myopia refers to our tendency to become short-sighted and self-centered, losing a connection to the bigger picture, or larger systemic context of our work.
To test this, I invite you to bring to mind a specific role or scenario where you can observe this tendency most clearly in your own experience.
For me, I can observe this pattern showing up when I’m in “efficiency mode.”
In this mode, I have a sort of force field around me, designed to protect me from distractions. Yet in this state of inward focus, my work starts to feel mechanical and disconnected. It drains energy. I begin barreling ahead with no real strategic thinking or direction, just “getting shit done.”
How does this pattern show up for you?
If you’re anything like me, you can be quite good at justifying it. Shit needs to get done!
But let’s create a little space around this and explore it while keeping in mind our aim to increase freedom and effectiveness for ourselves and others. One angle we’ll explore here is the relationship between myopia and the quality of our motivation.
Reflect: How does the tendency to become short-sighted and inward-focused impact the quality of your motivation? What impact does reconnecting with the bigger picture have on it?
I invite you to create some space to explore this “reconnection.” Observe yourself and the quality of your motivation as you expand your scope of considering.
The key to this, I believe based on my own experience and practice, is to focus on the right level of detail. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the immense complexity of larger systems, which can force us back into myopic tunnel vision.
A simple framework that’s been helping me is based on the work of my late mentor Carol Sanford. It helps us think about how our work connects across three basic systemic levels: 1) as individuals; 2) nested in our places; 3) nested within a greater whole.
This can be visualized as such:
Recall that in this lineage, we present frameworks simply as invitations to reflect through a particular lens. The content will change depending on what you are looking at.
What this particular framework can help us do is focus without becoming myopic. I’ll invite you to test this in your own experience now.
First, consider your place. How big is here? Don’t get hung up on this question, as you can always adjust your frame. Pick a living system that you are closely involved with to test the framework. For example, a household, property, team, neighborhood, organization, or community can work well as a place. Choose one that feels most alive and relevant to you right now.
Now consider the greater whole your place is nested within. Again, don’t get hung up choosing the perfect frame here. If your place is a team, the greater whole may be the organization. If the place is an organization, the greater whole may be the local community or an industry.
Hopefully that gives you a sense of how this framework can be applied on different scales. The important thing, however, is to focus on a particular set of nested systems for the moment. You might consider grabbing a piece of paper and creating a version of this framework with these systems identified on it. At the very least, create a clear picture of it in your mind.
Reflect: What effect does looking through this lens have on the way you feel about your “work” here in this place?
Consider pausing and testing this now. See if you can observe yourself as you also observe the larger context of your work through this specific lens. What thoughts come to mind? What feelings come up for you? What bodily sensations do you notice?
How might you practice with this framework over the weekend and into next week? How might this enable a new level of capacity for you in situations where you typically become myopic, or short-sighted and inward-focused?
Next week, we’ll build on this practice by exploring how we can avoid the delusions of imagination and learn to see the real potential within our unique places.
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