#1101 How to Make Easy Hard

Hint: Have No Idea Where You’re Headed

The other day we celebrated Eleanor’s third birthday.

Her name literally means “bright, shining one” so it was sweet to celebrate her wonderful brightness!

Now…

She loves doing everything her big brother does so we got her a few age-appropriate puzzles. While Emerson and I are hammering some fun big ones, she gets to rock her 24-piece puzzles with wooden pieces that fit right into a nice wooden frame.

Nice, playful puzzles featuring wild animals, sea creatures and mermaids, that sort of thing.

Super easy right?

Well…

Yah.

Only…

Here’s the funny thing.

The puzzles don’t come with a box with a picture on the front you can look at as you build it. (And we didn’t realize until later that there’s a sticker on the back of the wooden frame in which you build the puzzle that shows you the final creation.)

So…

Without a clear sense of what you’re building, that 24-piece, 3-year-old level, RIDICULOUSLY easy puzzle becomes surprisingly (!) hard to build!

Seriously. 🤓

And, of course, as Emerson and Alexandra and Eleanor and I laughed about it together I knew you and I needed to chat about it as well.

You know what I thought of as I reflected on how hard it is to build a puzzle when you don’t know what the end state is supposed to look like?

Stephen Covey.

Habit #2 of 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.

Begin with the End in Mind.

He tells us that ALL things are created twice: “There’s a mental or first creation, and a physical or second creation to all things.

And, that’s Today’s +1.

Whether we’re talking about creating a great life or a great day (or a 24-piece puzzle!), it REALLY helps to begin with the end in mind.

Which is why we kick off our Mastery Series with a Covey-inspired Eulogy Exercise (preceded by a quick trip to hell!) in which we get clear on what we want the ULTIMATE end to look like for us.

Then we move on to start to “see” our Big 3 (Energy! Work! Love!) with more clarity before we spend 2 months (!!!) getting more clarity on what our Masterpiece Days look like in our Carpe Diem Module.

All that to say…

Here’s to creating the things that matter most TWICE: Once in our mind and then in our lives.

TODAY.

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