It's called the focusing illusion

It's called the focusing illusion. "Nothing in life is as important as you think it is while you are thinking about it," as Daniel Kahneman explains. The more narrowly we focus on a particular aspect of our lives, the greater its apparent influence. At the beginning of the description above, I concen-trated almost entirely on the weather-ice in New York, sun in Miami Beach. This aspect was therefore dominant when I asked you to compare the satisfaction of living in New York with that of living in Miami.

— from The Heart in the Cockpit (Emotion/Awe/Anxiety/Regret/Empathy) · Art of the Good Life: Clear Thinking for Business and a Better Life by Rolf Dobelli

In the book

Two simple questions re-level it. First: will this matter in five hours, five days, five weeks, five years? Second, the one I lean on hardest — the focusing illusion, which Kahneman summed up as nothing in life is as important as you think it is while you are thinking about it. The thing looms enormous only because you are staring at it; widen the lens to a whole life and most of today's catastrophe shrinks to a footnote. […] Reappraise the storm. Change the definition and you change the feeling. Ask whether this will matter in five years; remember that nothing is as important as it seems while you are staring at it. When you are stuck in a traffic jam fuming, picture a friend who has died and ask what he would give to be stuck in this very jam — your whole perspective turns to gratitude. — The Heart in the Cockpit (Emotion/Awe/Anxiety/Regret/Empathy)

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