The Puzzle of Life

I was helping my 10 year old son with his jigsaw puzzle. He loves puzzles and I am convinced he has got a special puzzle brain because when I am helping him, he sees things that I don’t see. Anyway we decided to put together all the things he has learnt as a result of doing all these puzzles, so below are our joint puzzle insights and the parallel with life:

1. There will be people around you that say ‘aargh I can’t do it’ but you just have to calm them down and show them they way.
2. The pieces that you don’t know what do with, put to one side, it will all come together in the end.
3. There are always easy bits, do them first.
4. Sometimes there will be holes where you have missing pieces, don’t let that stop you, carry on and build around it.
5. The are times when it feels like nothing fits anywhere. Be patient.
6. Whatever you do, don’t give up, you can’t finish a puzzle if you give up.
7. When you know where the really good bits are, build up to it.
8. When one part gets too difficult, move away from that part and start with another part of the puzzle.
9. If the dog eats one piece, don’t kill the dog, you can still finish the puzzle without that piece.
10. Be happy puzzle building is harder when you are grumpy.