Telescope, Binoculars, a Microscope, and a Mirror

“Earth is flat. Sure, there are hills, mountains, and valleys, but looking out to the horizon, it’s clearly flat.” Well, that’s what the ancients believed. Even before Pythagoras provided evidence around 500 B.C., observers began to speak of the earth as a sphere. Over time, the visible and measurable proof mounted for the roundness of our planet, although a few “flat-earthers” still float around the solar system with us on this giant ball.

Things aren’t always what they first seem to be. Sometimes they are more, sometimes less, and other times what we think we see is just plain wrong. Think about the statement “more than meets the eye.” The idea is that there is information that is not meeting the eye; it is unseen. Unseen doesn’t necessarily mean unseeable. It might mean that the information hasn’t met the eye yet. 

What if the capacity for information to reach the eye and be processed is increased? Vision enhancement gives you more: it increases, improves, advances, and refines what you see, leading to discovery, breakthroughs, and innovation. 

The idea of improving vision has a long and interesting history. While the first eyeglasses appeared in Italy in the 13th century, people have been trying to enhance their eyesight for much longer. Around 750 BC, Assyrian artisans are believed to have used polished crystals or glass as magnifiers for detailed engraving work. The Roman philosopher Seneca (4 BC - 65 AD) used a glass globe filled with water to magnify text.

Eventually, lenses began to be made and arranged in structures that allowed for a variety of vision-enhancing capacities. All of these tools empower looking. This article explores looking that goes beyond the interest of simply seeing. 

Information-based actionable looking seeks:

Looking for…
Something in specific
Nothing in particular
What has yet to be seen

Looking at…
What’s on the surface
What’s most observable
 What’s right in front of us

Looking into…
More than meets the naked eye
More than initial perceptions
 What makes it all and us all tick

Looking beyond…
To where we are headed
To what’s out there
To other possibilities

These ways of looking at ourselves, our work, and our world enhance our perceptions, projections, and preparations. They make way for the ideas that need to be intentionally nurtured and the actions that need to be successfully implemented.

Let’s do some vision enhancing.

Telescope
I love looking into the way out distance, whether it is the terrestrial horizon, expansive space, or envisioning the future. To say that it moves me is an understatement. Even photos of deep space mesmerize me and cause me to think about life. That might be true of you, too.

Telescopes enhance our capacity to look into faraway places, bringing them closer, as if they were not so far away. The observable edge of the universe, the cosmological horizon believed to be viewable by the James Webb Space Telescope, is approximately 46.5 billion light-years away. It would take you approximately 450 quintillion (450,000,000,000,000,000) years to drive there at 70 mph. (Add a mind-blown emoji here.)

The viewing of the future and deep space can easily lead to penetrating questions: Why are we here? Why am I here? What is life really about anyway? It can make us and the work we do seem very insignificant. But we and our work matter deeply.

Occasionally, questions of exploration into the more profound, more expansive, and future places of life need to be asked. Otherwise, we risk a lack of perspective, which can impact how and why we live and work.

Telescopic vision enhancement brings the distant future in for a better and focused look. Consider this: If you keep doing what you are doing and being who you are being, where will you and your domain end up? It is essential to consider.

Don’t use the excuse of “I’m not a vision person.” Cultivate your ability to look beyond your current circumstances and into the probabilities and possibilities for the future. Invest some consistent time with visionaries. Listen to them and learn from them.

For the visionary and futurist, be careful not to always look telescopically beyond what is close to you. You might overlook some people and details that have long-term implications.

Binoculars
Close one of your eyes. Now open it. Close it again and pay attention to the shift in your field of vision when you open it. Binocular viewing uses both eyes, providing a broader field of vision than looking with only one eye.

Whereas telescopes can view farther distances, binoculars are typically used to view closer distances and are more portable. Binocular vision enhancement is more about looking ahead while on the go—the ability to see things at a distance more clearly, but with agility.

Exploring that which is binocular-like is a way of bringing the near future into focus for a better look. Looking telescopically may look longer, farther, and deeper. The steps viewed from binoculars are for the upcoming months to one year.

Like the telescope, be cautious of focusing solely on binocular viewing, as you will always be drawn to the distant view. Always dreaming about what can be, but not seeing the current reality, makes moving forward difficult.

Microscope
Here is where we look into the details. Usually, people love either living in the slightly defined dreams of the future or bathing in the abundance of details necessary to make that dream happen. If you want the dream to happen, you need to consider the details.

Bringing the smallest of details into clear view can also prevent monstrous challenges from occurring in the future. Details matter to planning, much like the variables in a trajectory problem; it’s not always as simple as just start in Charleston, South Carolina, and end in San Diego, California. What are the other influences that will happen along the way?

The difference between a simple microscope and a compound microscope is the number of lenses, which impacts magnification capacity. Not every look into the details necessitates a compound view. A simple look at the necessary details will suffice.

“Put under a microscope” can make a person nervous, especially if they feel like they are always living under a microscope. At the same time, don’t use “I’m not a details person” as an excuse. Cultivate your capacity by investing time with people who are. Learn some of the questions they ask. If their questions make you mad, it’s probably because you don’t have an answer. Spend some time looking at the details for the answer.

Detail lovers need to step back from their world under the microscope a little more. Living always focused on the smallest of details will keep you anchored in what is and will bury any hopes and dreams that may be hidden in your place of childlike wonder. Defining and diagnosing problems ad nauseum, but never being able to create solutions is also unending microscope behavior.

There is a telescope and binocular person out there that needs you, and you need them.

Mirror
Looking in the mirror at you and your work in conjunction with all of the other vision enhancements should impact what you see in that mirror. Informed self-awareness and assessment is not the social media selfie craze. Looking intentionally into the mirror to learn, adjust, and grow is imperative to being the healthiest and strongest you.

Be open to what you see. Be willing to even look into a magnifying mirror, getting up close and personal. In my opinion, if more of us took a closer and honest look at ourselves regularly, we would work together more effectively and make more progress in that work. This is a humility-guided growth that doesn’t shy away from being exposed to our unsightly ways of living with others that need to change.

How you do what you do comes from who you are. Doing comes from our being, not the other way around. You are not your work, but your work does reflect you. An interesting reflection for a leader to assess is to look at the influences you have. Do you have followers, and what is true of them? Why are they following you?

Beware of looking in a mirror only. Unlike the vision enhancements mentioned above, living here can be the most dangerous. Always focused on you and your work, which can lead to loneliness and depression. Eventually, no one will want to be with you, not even yourself. Look long enough to learn and grow, but don’t become the Wicked Queen who loved her mirror too much.

As you enjoy viewing time with these vision-enhancing tools, here are a couple of viewing conditions to consider.

Proficiency in Looking
Some people can move between all of these vision enhancements proficiently. If you find that you tend toward one particular means of vision enhancement, find some friends who you believe lean toward the others. Schedule some regular time with them, maybe as a group of “Vision Enhancers.”

Availability to Looking
Be a person who wants to see more, see better, and see anew. “Wanting to” leads to the availability of yourself and your time. This availability turns vision enhancement into a place where childlike wonder meets adult-like wisdom. It is truly a different way of living and breathing in your days. A person with a determination that is available, not just driven, is positioned to live a vision-enhanced life and to make the differences in the world that you long for. Make the investment your life and work deserve.

Do you desire to strengthen your CharityTracker or OasisInsight network and achieve new levels of collaboration and impact? Reach out to Chuck today to schedule your conversation: chuck@simonsolutions.com. 

Dr. Chuck Coward serves as Community Impact Specialist for Simon Solutions, Inc. Chuck has invested over 36 years in fostering human and community development from a variety of places and roles, including as a pastor, non-profit Executive Director, Director of Development, businessman, consultant, university professor, The Struggle Coach, and the founder of Entrusted Foundation. Serving to make people and communities stronger is his great passion. Chuck is the proud husband of Anita, dad to four, and granddaddy to eight.