Lessons from a surprisingly hard puzzle

Jul 20, 2022

This is my first time tackling a 2000 piece puzzle – and it’s intimidating!

I’ve been on a puzzle kick lately – it’s my morning meditation and end of day unwind time. 1000 piece puzzles have been my jam and I’ve found a great groove doing them. I can get a 1000 piece puzzle done in a couple of days.

But 2000 pieces? Yikes! Where to start? I opened up the box and was like “ooof, this is going to be much harder than what I’m used to”

Sorting is a whole other ballgame. I did what I usually do and started with the border. But after that I couldn’t do what I normally do and sort by color or by section – there are too many colors and sections! So I had to find a different strategy… I loosely sorted into 3 groups: top, bottom and “I don’t have any clue where this goes!”

Then from there I’ve started with the obvious. The girl with the red hair (red is easy to pick out in a pile) and some of the sea critters. The colorful scaly rooftops were next. And that brings me to where I am this morning – some progress made but still a very long way to go.

I’m not sure where I’ll go next, but I am at the point where I know I’ll continue. I’m past the point where I’m tempted to give up and go back to my easier 1000 piece puzzles.

I can’t help but see the lessons here that apply in so many other areas of life and business.

“I’ll just stick with what I know because it’s easier”

“My current way of doing things isn’t working here and I’m not sure what to do next?”

“Ugh. This is way harder than I thought it would be and I’m not sure if I want to continue…”

“Other people do puzzles this big and they make it look so easy!” (There is a woman in my puzzling group who got this one done in a day!)

“Maybe I’m just not wired to do big puzzles”

Oh the many reasons I could quit and go back to doing what is known and comfortable.

Amazing how our lives can so easily reflect the lessons of our business. 😉

I’m curious – when was the last time you did something for the first time? Something new and perhaps a bit intimidating? Hit reply and let me know!

PS – This puzzle is called If Fish Could Walk by artist Demelsa Haughton, Ravensburger brand. I love her work!

PPS – Yes, my cats like to ‘help’ when I’m working on puzzles…

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