Growing up I was never one for puzzles. You could blame my lack of enthusiasm on my visual impairment, but that wasn’t the real reason. The truth is that most of us have a very low threshold for frustration, and puzzles frustrated me immensely! Early on and despite the best efforts of my poor mother, I wouldn’t even TRY to start a new one…
I realise now that all I needed was a plan and a little bit of perspective – because starting new things is so much easier when you’re armed with those!
Next time you want to start something new but feel “stuck” in that fearful, frustrated state of mind we all know so well, give these puzzle-building tactics a try:
- Devise a plan – Where will you start? What needs to happen? When do things need to happen? Have you got all the pieces or do you still need some? I used to start building my puzzles at the corners, but that was as far as my plan went. Now I know that I could have gone on to the edges, grouped pieces by colour, involved a friend to make it fun, chosen puzzles I was passionate about building… You get the idea – there are just so many possibilities when it comes to planning. If you don’t start with a plan though, you’ll probably never start at all.
- Start somewhere and figure things out as you go – We feel like we have to start out as experts and anything less than perfection makes us feel that we have failed. Even with a good plan in place we can block ourselves from placing the first piece of the puzzle or taking the first step towards something new because we don’t give ourselves permission to be new at something and learn as we go.
- Stay flexible or something will break – Just as you risk damaging your puzzle if you keep trying to shove a piece into a space where it doesn’t fit, you risk damaging yourself when you remain inflexible. Starting something new requires you to keep bending and adapting so that you can make progress – otherwise you might break!
- Work with only one piece at a time – It’s much harder to become overwhelmed when you just focus on one piece – or one step – at a time.
- Keep the big picture in mind – Don’t see the big picture as something you haven’t achieved yet. Rather keep the beautiful vision of it in your mind’s eye so that you can keep adjusting course towards what you are aiming to build. We tend to forget that the growth, the joy and the achievement lie in the process and not just in the product.
Wishing you joy in the journey towards building new masterpieces!
Portal to Change 