Visualisation can often give us a different perspective and shed light in corners we hadn’t considered looking.
One such visualization is the ‘Big I, Small I’.
In one of my many dives into the human psyche I was treading water along the shores of self-inflicted guilt versus motivation.
We often blame ourselves for the wrong things.
We are either too harsh with what we have failed to achieve or too lenient about our attempts.
We try, but we tend to get in our own way.
The major pitfall here is our knack to completely define ourselves AS our latest failure.
“I am such a loser, I can’t even do >insert attempt here< “.
This creates an overblown sense of guilt (and self-pity), robbing us of any empowerment that might be had and tends to leave us moping in a corner somewhere.
The ‘Big I, Small I’ visual gives us a perspective check.
The Big I represents you as the shiny complex structure that is you altogether, while the Small I’s each represent one aspect of you.
Every small I (for example: you trying to reach a deadline with good quality content) is one of many small I’s.
It is part of you and therefore not to be trifled with but it does not define you.
You are not this one thing that you are trying to achieve, you are many.
Unless you are on an amazing losing streak not all the small I’s will be negative.
Even alongside huge disappointing misses you probably still managed to do many things right.
An equally liberating perspective is that not all the small I’s are going to be positive at the same time and that’s okay.
The overall good-feeling aim is more positive small I’s than negative ones bouncing around in your big I.