big, slow ideas

I was reading a post by Curt Rosengren over at Worthwhile Magazine's blog. I was happy to see that I was not the only person on earth to read Brenda Ueland (a very fiesty lady writer who wrote the book If You Want to Write in the 1930s, and it was just as relevant to me when I read it in college in the late 1980s.)
I'm also happy to see someone championing big, slow ideas, because I don't think that happens enough in this hyper-connected media-mad world...
Here's the entire post, since I think it's worth repeating:

Slow, big ideas
by Curt Rosengren on Creativity
"These people who are always briskly doing something and as busy as waltzing mice, they have little, sharp, staccato ideas, such as: "I see where I can make an annual cut of $3.47 in my meat budget." But they have no slow, big ideas."

- Brenda Ueland

I would venture to say that with our instant gratification culture, we tend to lean toward the little, sharp, staccato ideas. But it's the slow, big ideas that provide direction and a vision to move towards. Without those slow, big ideas, the staccato ideas end up being little more than random bursts of energy. Kind of a hamster wheel effect.

How do you slow down enough to give yourself time to cultivate the slow, big ideas? What helps to raise your focus to the bigger picture?