My Brain
I don’t know about you, but sometimes the way my brain works annoys me.
I love diversity, and whenever I start a new project, course, career or research topic, I tend to dive right in. I want to learn as much as possible, as fast as possible. I want to see all the pieces of the puzzle and how they fit together. I want to see ten steps ahead and know where we are going and how we are going to get there.
It can be frustrating for other people and me!
The problem is, to get to the point of seeing the whole picture takes time, trial and error, mistakes, failures and successes. It is constant learning and reconfiguring of what I know. It requires juggling all the pieces in the air until you can figure out where they fit.
I have realised one of my gifts is understanding how the pieces fit in great detail, often before they fit in reality and before others can see. My frustration is waiting for people to catch up.
The Jigsaw Puzzle Process
It’s kind of like doing a jigsaw puzzle.
You start with all these pieces, and you know they will form the outcome, but you have to go through a process. Maybe you begin by sorting into like colours or pulling out all the straight edges. Small clusters come together, and you see how individual pieces fit against another. You know what the final image will be – you can see it on the lid of the box, clear as day!! But you still cannot see it in pieces in front of you.
Eventually, you have groups of red and green, and you think you know where they fit in the bigger picture. Some are correct. Some you have to rearrange, move, turn around, and rethink. You are tempted to force certain pieces to come together when they just don’t fit.
Some people love the process of doing a jigsaw over days or weeks. That process frustrates the heck out of me when I know what the outcome is. My brain kind of wonders, “What’s the point? We already know what the picture is.“
Upfront, I love the upcoming challenge of figuring out all the pieces. I get impatient with the process, and when I see how they fit together, that’s it, job done.
SO BRAIN, WHAT EXACTLY ARE WE ENJOYING? LOL
Piecing Together The Jigsaw Of Life
I have been experiencing this process for decades about figuring out myself, my purpose, life and reality in general.
What does this mean?
It means that I am excited by the challenge of understanding these things. I am impatient with the lifelong process of discovery and am learning more and more about how to be present and enjoy this. Perhaps, when we figure it out, I’ll be ready to move on to the next thing and the next lifetime of new experiences!!
My challenge has been to enjoy and appreciate the journey of putting the puzzle together and celebrating reaching the outcome. This is what I am focussing on.
So, where am I going with this?
Well, I am in a state of perpetual learning. I always want to know more. For a decade or more, I have known that this is the work I am here to do. My problem has been that I could see many pieces and how some of them come together.
But I was missing the lid of the jigsaw puzzle. I couldn’t see the outcome, the bigger picture, the reason and the purpose for doing all the things I was doing.
My life has felt messy for years. Decades. I was/ am Flying blind for much of it and trying to figure it out in my head.
At some point, I unknowingly began to tap into my intuition which narrowed my path and reduced the number of seemingly random and irrelevant experiences.
I kept doing things that I knew were leading me to where I was meant to be, the life I was meant to live and the work I was meant to do. For years, I could see how much of the pieces fit together, but I still could not see what the heck was holding it together – the core purpose of my work, the reason for being here and the more significant meaning behind my life experiences.
IT WAS LIKE SEEING 80% OF THE JIGSAW PICTURE BUT STILL NOT BEING ABLE TO RECOGNISE WHAT OR WHERE IT WAS.
The Bigger Picture Appears
I am finally at peace (at least I feel like I am for now, but that could change) because I will not know the outcome of my life until I get to the end. Only then will I be able to look back and see the bigger picture and the final puzzle. Until that time, I am creating pieces and clusters of pieces of the puzzle.
This week I started as a student in an online course on emailing. It wasn’t planned, but it called to me. I resisted it, but it kept crawling back into my mind and awareness, and I finally succumbed.
This course was another essential piece of the puzzle and way more than how to send an email.
It is about stories, relationships, reconnecting to and understanding you and me.
Some of the biggest things I have learned that I want to affect my approach to my work include:
- Stop writing for robots and write for people – Writing comes easily and naturally to me. My best writing comes down when I sit at a computer with no preconceived ideas or expectations and allow it to flow. This is an example of this. I have been trying to create content for “algorithms” and platforms, and I lost the joy. It’s time to come back to writing for people, not robots.
- Include more of me – When I write for people, I include more of me, naturally. When I write for robots and algorithms, it becomes clinical and factual (which is still an important part, but not the only part). It’s time to open up and reveal more of myself and my journey because it’s an essential puzzle piece.
- Build relationships – Slow down, simplify and focus on the person at the other end of the email, article, blog or video. Build a connection and a relationship rather than just another tick on an endless to-do list.
- Lose perfectionism – Things don’t have to be perfect. You don’t have to labour over every word. Imperfectly done is way better than perfectly not done.
The Jigsaw Of You
This course has been a reminder that I am not a machine, and the reason I put this work into the world is ultimately to serve and support humanity. This course has reminded me to be me.
So how does this help you?
- It gives you an idea of where I might be headed and what you can expect and helps you understand me.
- Maybe we can all start to slow down and pay more attention to the present moment, where we are now, and the journey of life rather than trying to get somewhere we are not. Maybe we can enjoy the process of doing the jigsaw puzzle of life.
- Maybe you can begin to see that pieces of your life lead to a bigger picture. Everything is perfect, and you are here for a reason, even if you cannot see it yet.
This is longer than I intended, so I’ll cut it here – it is what it needs to be. As I peel back layers of myself I am in the process of refining my website and my online home. Over time it is more and more reflecting starting to reflect my inner core.
If you want to see some of my deeper understandings about you, me, and my work from this course, you can check out the links below.
It is not perfect, I will refine it over time, but it is imperfectly done.
The choice is yours…
…Liz Watt