Needle in a Haystack

I’m sure you’ve heard the cliché about looking for something but not being able to find it referred to as looking for a needle in a haystack.

It’s a metaphor I sometimes use to describe how we tend go about trying to solve problems.

In a lot of instances, we look for a complicated answer.

We think is the answer was easy, we would be able to see it straight away.

The challenge becomes the fact that we are exposed to so much information every day that our brain is trying to process, and reality is sometimes we just can’t see the metaphorical forest for the trees!

The Needle in a Haystack concept is where we are just so surrounded by stuff that there is no way we could possibly find what we need just by rummaging through the “haystack”.  In fact, if we put our hand (or in the case of technology, cursor) in the wrong spot, we can end up getting “hurt”.

I see this a lot with clients who are trying to do the same thing and expecting a different result.

Reality is, we need to looking for the proverbial needle in a haystack and start clearing away the “hay.”  In the case of technology, it’s removing the complications, whether that’s a formula, a nested function or it even be yourself. 

When we remove the “hay” we tend to find the “needle” which answers the questions we have.

What ‘hay” do you need to remove today to find the answers you need?

Donna Hanson is a productivity expert who believes everyone deserves the know how to get back to doing the things they love.  Follow her on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook or her YouTube channel for more thoughts.