A few days ago I mentioned one of my meetings with my Korean student. I told her this, "It's essential to balance a focus on the present and an eye on a large timeframe in your life. ... Don't lose sight of the future when you are overwhelmed with the busy life today." During our next meeting, I will explain why she should never lose sight of the future.
Most people autopilot their daily activities, me2. That is, people are mostly controlled by inertia, product of habits, always taking the path of least resistance, regardless of happenings outside.
Thus people are easily caught up in unimportant daily minutiae and miss the large picture. Even with their set goals, they get lost or miss their targets. This is one of the reasons why people let go of their resolutions.
Here comes a Chinese wisdom: "纲举目张" (gāng jǔ mù zhāng). The literal meaning: When you lift the head-rope, the meshes will come open. The deeper meaning is: when you take care of the essential and all the non-essential will take care of themselves.
纲举目张 emphasizes the importance of focusing on the essential, the main issue. This is what Chinese like to say, 抓主要矛盾, solve the key problem first.
When you have a clear goal and the blueprint to reach it, keep in sight of this instead of getting sidetracked or entangled in the messy non-essentials.