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If you don’t already know this about me, I LOVE to put together puzzles!! It’s a relaxing time for me and it gets my mind off everything else to help me focus on that one goal of completing the puzzle. And with a 500+ piece puzzle, it’s gonna take several days.  So I work on it diligently until it’s done and typically by then, I’m out of my funk and back to normal.

So the other night I got home and was ready to work on my puzzle.  I bought this whole kit so I can roll them up and store it out of the way of the rest of my family but not completely destroy all the work I do each day. So I began to unroll my puzzle quickly because the flash had started and I wanted to equally split my focus (that doesn’t work well). I worked on just getting the boarder complete for the next 2 hours! It was getting late and I was frustrated because I just couldn’t make some of the pieces work anywhere. Like they didn’t fit ANYWHERE!!

I tried everything from going back through my other pieces to find any edge pieces I missed to moving pieces around to see if I just got it wrong somewhere. I ended up finding 2 more pieces as I sifted through the pile and they helped but… they didn’t complete the puzzle.

So I gave up for the night (2.5 hours later) and began rolling up my puzzle. As I was rolling, I see a puzzle piece on the ground! The one piece that I needed and wasted way too much time over.

Now had I taken my time to unroll the puzzle slowly and make sure no piece fell under the mat as I unrolled it, I probably would have completed the boarder of the puzzle. But I rushed. I got distracted (The Flash is a great distraction by the way if your not already addicted to it yet). I misplaced a vital piece of my puzzle.

With the rush of everyday life we can completely disregard the order of operations. We feel ourselves getting rushed and just start pressing our way through the day or week in whatever way gets everything done. But sometimes doing it that way takes us out before we really begin. And we are tired and maybe feeling a bit down throughout our week.

In my rush to start puzzling I missed a piece that basically made my entire nights work pointless. I was behind before I even began. Why? Because I rushed. Because I didn’t take the time to make sure I got every piece. Because I misplaced my focus (on the Flash which turned out to be a great episode but that’s not the point)

If you know something works, let it work for you. Allow yourself the opportunity for all the pieces to fall into place. This week focus on placing your focus in the places it belongs. If you have a morning routine that energizes you and prepares you best for your day like reading your bible with your first cup of coffee or maybe you like to workout at night and pray right before you go to sleep, whatever it is, give yourself time for that routine every day this week and see how the intentionality changes the outcome of your day and your week.

(no that photo is not the puzzle I was working on but just for visuals sake and it is a Disney themed puzzle so that part is true)