3 Birth Months That Suffer From Extreme Tunnel Vision

Whenever the human eye focuses intently on something, it tends to blur out everything around it. This is natural and applies to both the human eye and every camera that humans have ever invented. In strictly visual terms, “tunnel vision” refers to physical malady where one’s peripheral vision is lost and one can only see what’s directly in front of their field of vision.

In symbolic terms, “tunnel vision” means concentrating on a single idea or project to the exclusion of all others. For example, you get so focused on cleaning your oven that you don’t realize your house is on fire. Or you’re so busy searching for your freeway exit that you don’t realize you’re on the wrong freeway. Even worse, you’re so obsessed with making sure your hair looks perfect for that important meeting that you leave the house clad only in underwear.

It’s good to focus, but it can be a disaster to focus that much. After all, it doesn’t matter how nice your hair looks if the person you’re meeting wasn’t expecting to see you in underwear.

Terms similar to this symbolic form of “tunnel vision” include “failing to see the bigger picture” and “can’t see the forest for the trees.” We all do it, but some of us do it more than others.

Tunnel vision is similar to “confirmation bias,” where you start with a conclusion based on your personal prejudices and then filter out any information that undermines what you’ve already chosen to believe. In this sense, it’s also known as simple “narrow-mindedness.”

Here are three birth months that can get so obsessed with focusing on single ideas or projects that they lose sight of everything else. It’s no coincidence that they are all Earth sign natives.

January

Widely regaled as the hardest-working, most practical, and most goal-oriented birth month of the year, those born in January sometimes ha trouble drawing the line between “dedication” and “obsession.” This can often lead to trouble when “keeping your eyes on the prize” leads to “ignoring all the hazards and roadblocks standing between you and the prize.” For example, let’s say someone born in January develops a crush on someone and makes it their top priority to seduce that person. They learn where the object of their desire lives, what they do for work, what kind of music they listen to, what sort of foods they like, what their basic political beliefs are, and what they find attractive in a lover. So far, so good. It would have saved them a lot of time and heartache, though, if they’d first bothered to check whether their crush was already married.

September

Those born in September are the infamous perfectionist of the year, and in a sloppy world where quality control seems to be slipping everywhere, this can be an admirable trait. But there’s an age-old cliché that says in some situations, “the perfect is the enemy of the good.” Let’s say you’re a writer who has a unique angle on a huge news story that everyone is covering. You want to interview all of the major players in the story. You won’t settle for anything less than a complete and comprehensive overview of this viral saga. But while other writers have already filed their stories and are sucking up all the attention, you’re still quibbling over small details. And you just won’t settle for anything but the catchiest title. You wind up spending so long searching for perfection that the story has already gone cold before you publish anything. In such cases, you’d do well to forget about perfection and learn how to seize the moment and strike when the iron is hot. It doesn’t matter if your story is perfect when nobody winds up seeing it.

May

This is a case where May’s best-known trait—their implacable stubbornness—becomes their worst flaw. Those born in May often take a “my way or the highway” approach to life and is very hesitant to listen to advice or ever admit when they’re wrong. But what if a sudden and unexpected emergency demands your physical presence 100 miles away within two hours, or you’ll miss out on a huge financial opportunity? If “your way” involves walking, isn’t this a case where the “highway” will get you where you need to be much more efficiently? Your typical May-born, sad as it may seem, will put on their blinders and their walking shoes and wind up 38 hours late and not one penny richer.