Amazon Lego Set

Me: Do you like your life?                                                                                                       Client: No.                                                 Me: What would it take to build a life that you do like? What would it look like?             Client: I don’t know. I’m not sure I can.

Ever tried putting together one of those tiny Lego sets—the ones that promise to turn into the Titanic or the house from the movie “Up”? If you have, maybe you know the feeling of opening the box, and instead of a ready-made masterpiece, what you have is a chaotic pile of seemingly unrelated, tiny pieces. Life, my friends, is a lot like that. 

I open those boxes and think, “Nope, I don’t think so.”

Life can also look like we will never get where we’d like to be. We will never have what we’d like or overcome our current chaos. It looks like a bunch of tiny pieces that add up to nothing. But, friend, it’s a lie. We picked that project because we wanted to build the picture on the front. Those tiny pieces matter and those instructions know the way.

Envisioning the Dream:

In order to get where we want to be, we must know where we are going. 

All those tiny pieces mean nothing without the image that sold us on in the first place. Think of the life you want as the picture on the Lego box. It’s the vision, the dream, the end goal. Now, open the box, and what do you get? A bunch of seemingly insignificant pieces, each representing a step, a decision, or a moment in time. A direction.

The Overwhelming Beginning:

Expect to be overwhelmed at first. You’re looking at this pile of tiny steps, decisions, and moments, and it’s hard to believe they’ll ever add up to something meaningful; that we will ever move to the place we are right now to the place we’d like to be. Sometimes, it might even feel like everything’s falling apart. But hey, that’s part of the process. Failure is not the end. It’s the way we figure out what didn’t work and try another way.

Following the Instructions:

Picture the instructions that come with the Lego set as life’s objectives. They guide you through each step, no matter how small. Sure, it might seem like these steps don’t matter much, but here’s the secret—they do.

The most important step on all of these projects: the belief that it will happen. When we believe each of these steps lead to that picture, we do them, even before we can see it. 

Breaking Down the Big Vision:

We need to break down our big goals into manageable steps. It’s about taking that first step, then the next, and repeating until we reach our destination. Every small step, no matter how insignificant, is a crucial part of the bigger picture.

If you need a reminder: do one of those lego kits, or paint by number, or build furniture from a box. It’s a small, less risky, example to remind us that even when we can’t see it in the mess; we know where we’re headed, and though there may be a more efficient way or we discover something that doesn’t work; failure and learning are not the end of the story, failure and learning are part of the process. 

Believing in the Process:

There’ll be moments when we doubt whether it’s worth it or if we’ll ever get there. Resist the belief that it doesn’t matter or that it will never be. Those thoughts are like neglecting that first step in the Lego instructions—you risk the stability and beauty of the final creation. You risk keeping a pile of tiny, pointless legos that could have been something great.

Take the First Step:

So, how do we know what it will take? Envision where you want to be, who you want to be, and what you want your life to look like. Draw a picture, make a vision board, or write a story displaying the before and after. Break it down into smaller steps and take the first one, then the next. It might not seem like it’s making a difference right away but trust the process.

It’s About the Direction:

It’s not about the size of the step; it’s about the direction. Keep building, keep believing, and before you know it, you’ll look back at your life, amazed at the masterpiece you’ve created. If you are not amazed, get a little distance. 

I once went to a paint nite with a friend and she was having a hard time when her steps did not match perfectly to that of the instructor. I told her to take a picture with her phone. After seeing the picture, she was impressed with her work and encouraged to keep going.  All great masterpieces are just a bunch of unimpressive marks until we step back; stop zooming in on mistakes and see how it all works together to create the amazing.

We are on a mission to make our life a place we like to be, and like building a Lego set, it’s a process. Embrace the chaos, enjoy the small victories, and keep building the life you’ve always dreamed of—one Lego piece at a time.