Life lessons from LEGO's

One of life’s greatest pains is stepping on a LEGO barefoot. Seriously. If there is even one tiny LEGO brick somewhere in your house, chances are you’ve stepped on it—and subsequently howled in agony. However, before those wayward pieces jab your foot with the pain of a knife stabbing you, they lie in a box with a gorgeous picture on the front. Whether we’re shopping for ourselves or for someone else, one of the things that draws us to a particular set is what the finished product will look like (or “supposed” to look like, right?) Granted, other factors like number of pieces, suggested age range, and price factor into your decision BUT that picture is the big hook.

So, what happens? You take it home, dump all the pieces out, take a deep breath and think, “Wow! This looks NOTHING like what was on the box!” Have you ever been disappointed? Have you ever NOT wanted to embark on the process because it doesn’t look like the picture on the box, and it’s really difficult to imagine all of those tiny pieces actually making something whole? It’s a very difficult thing to adjust your perspective when you pictured it one way and the product turns out to be another.

Wanting to throw in the towel on something is nothing new. Often times, this feeling comes about when things are not going our way; when we’ve been at it for a while and do not see any progress; or perhaps the experience has just not lived up to the expectation. When we embark on something, we tend to have a picture in our minds of what that journey is going to look like, feel like, and the celebration of arriving at the final destination. However, life has a funny way of showing us that things don’t often go according to plan.

Everyone has a picture of how life is “supposed” to look. When you’re “supposed” to get married; how many square feet your house is “supposed” to be; how many kids you’re “supposed” to have by a certain age; when you’re “supposed” to be the CEO, etc. My question to you is: where did you get the picture that you’re basing your life on?

If you get your picture of what life is supposed to look like based on glimpses of what other people give you from their filtered pictures on social media, you are ALWAYS going to be frustrated. When you compare the real thing to something that was altered and filtered, how are you supposed to feel fulfilled about your real life based on other’s pretension? Perhaps the picture comes from being told you’re worthless. If you have a picture of yourself that way, you will build your life according to that picture. You will sabotage yourself because you built by what you believed.

What do you do when life doesn’t look like what you pictured; when the pieces don’t look like the picture; when the process doesn’t look like the promise? Some of you have given up on your picture because you are looking at your piece.

Our purpose appears in pieces. It doesn’t look like it does on the box until it’s fully built. Maybe what you think is broken, is really just incomplete. That picture is showing you the finished product. Anything worth doing takes time and it’s not based on anyone else’s progress on their LEGO set either. We each have our own LEGO set to focus on.

Perhaps you feel frustrated because you’ve been building off of someone else’s picture or trying to build based on someone else’s expectations. Perhaps you feel inadequate because life has broken some of your pieces. Perhaps despair has settled in because years have passed and you feel like you’ve made no noticeable progress towards completing the picture.

Friend, mosaics are made from broken pieces, but they’re still beautiful works of art. In some cases, sometimes you have to take a LEGO set you really like and take it apart in order to build something even better. In other words, be committed to your goals but flexible about your methods.

Regardless of the set, each one contains a piece that is unique to it specifically, or at least very uncommon. The same goes for you. Sometimes it takes a lot of shuffling to find it, but there is something unique and memorable to it that is worthwhile and that includes YOU! Keep building, friend!