Panic zooms in. Calm zooms out. You need both, just not at the same time.

Both settings are useful, and the trouble is only ever using the wrong one. Narrow attention is what gets you through the next five minutes: the bleeding finger, the question on the paper, the ball coming at you. Wide attention tells you whether you are in the right subject or the right friendship, and it is useless in an emergency.

The skill is noticing which one you are in. If you are panicking about next year, you are using the close-up lens on something far off, and the move is to do one small thing today. If a decision has you stuck, widen out instead.