I started another puzzle yesterday. It’s a 2000-piece puzzle called Afternoon in Paradise. Here’s a snapshot of my current progress.

I love doing puzzles.

I hate sorting the pieces. This is by far my least favorite part of doing puzzles, but I still do it every time.

Why do it if I don’t like it?

Because it makes the rest of the puzzling journey so much more enjoyable! Once everything is sorted I find it much easier and more fun to work on. I can see what needs to be done. I can choose which section I want to do next. I feel motivated to keep going because I took the time to get organized.

I suspect you can see where I’m going with this… ;-)

There is SO much about the business journey that isn’t enjoyable. Things that we may hate doing, but that once done make the next steps so much easier and effective!

And yet, it is tempting to skip these steps or to let ourselves get stuck in the “things we should be doing but don’t want to” stage.

I invite you today to consider:

• What is something that you know you could/should do but have been resisting? (because you don’t like doing it)
• What is on the other side of this thing you don’t want to do? (What is the goal or result that is waiting for you on the other side?)
• How much time / effort will it really take to get this thing done? (chances are it’s less time than you think!)
• And if you REALLY don’t want to do it or don’t have the time, who could help you do it instead? (sometimes getting help is the key to getting through it)
• Success lies on the other side of doing the things we don’t always love doing. Of building the habit of doing the stuff we don’t always love doing.

When we get good at this all things are possible!