Life is a jigsaw without a picture.
We pick up one piece at a time and try to place it. A thought, a decision, a task, a conversation. Connecting pieces together in an attempt to make something coherent.
I’m doing one – a jigsaw, that is – without a picture. It’s some sort of Sherlock Holmes puzzle. That’s the only clue I have. I am making it up as I go along. Life can be like that too.
I systematically sifted through for edge pieces and joined them together, establishing a boundary. Then it was a case of picking out pieces by colour, shape or pattern which seemed to fit together. Brightly coloured pieces with distinct patterns were the most attractive.
After a while, a few islands of sense emerge – a row of books, a bowl, a block of white something. There is still a pile of dark grey pieces which I don’t really want to deal with. They can wait.
Like a normal week of life – lots of pieces, some brighter than others. We we fit them together into something vaguely recognisable, but with no overall picture or vision of where we are heading. And those dark grey tasks and decisions which we leave for another day.
It could be a project, a presentation, a proposal or something creative. We rather make it up as we go along, until one or two strands start to hang together, and it starts to makes sense. It feels like hard work.
There are gaps we cannot fill, and pieces we cannot place. Sometimes we take a piece of life and try to fit it into a gap. Sometimes we see a gap and look for a piece to fill it.
If we are lucky, a picture starts to emerge – if we stand back and see it from above. And it can look quite messy and half-baked.
Of course, life is not as predictable as a jigsaw. With a jigsaw, even without a picture, there is only one ultimate solution, only one way the pieces will fit together. But the pieces of our lives are constantly changing in colour and shape. We lose some and gain new ones. Some pieces which seemed to fit together, have fallen apart. It’s tempting to throw them up in the air and see where they land.
This is why having a picture to guide us is so helpful. It informs what we do with each task, decision, conversation, relationship. What parts of our lives to discard because they no longer fit. Which pieces we need to acquire to complete our picture.
Unlike a jigsaw, in life, we can draw our own personal picture. This is where coaching comes in.
Coaching provides us with a canvas and a box of crayons with which to draw our own amazing picture. To include what we want from life, and what we can give. What and who is really important to us – our talents, our loves, our values, our ambitions. Greens, reds, blues, oranges, yellows and purples in a kaleidoscope of shapes and sizes.
Now we have a point of reference for every move. A picture on the box. We are no longer scrambling around. Completing our picture becomes a pleasure. And life fits together rather more easily.
Unwrapping The World 