"When you can't see the wood from the trees"

- Can't see what you want because you are too close to the situation.

This saying is at least five hundred years old, and probably a century or two could be added to that. It was recorded in 1546 when Jon Heywood's wrote "Plentie is no deinte, ye see not your owne ease. I see, ye can not see the wood for the trees." And a few years later, in 1583, Brian Melbanke wrote: "Thou canst not or wilt not see wood for trees." The saying has cropped up repeatedly from then to the present, becoming, in fact, more frequent over the passing years.