I love a puzzle, it can be a Rubik’s cube, a crossword puzzle, an escape room or just a jigsaw puzzle. When I say ‘just a puzzle’ I don’t mean it like that as my favourite thing to do down by the beach on a rainy afternoon is do a 1000 piece puzzle and listen to the radio.
Puzzles are everywhere when you look for them, once you start looking for them you can’t stop. People with all their foibles and deceits are some of the most fascinating of all puzzles. As a writer an an observer of people you learn to spot these things seldom does anyone appreciate being seen as a puzzle to be solved, so you learn to keep that to yourself.
If you are keen on puzzles, then keep doing them as they are proven to help improve and sharpen your mental state, help improve your memory, is great for team building if you can put it together as a team. I find a simple jigsaw as a great stress reliever.
I try and take lessons from everything so lessons you can draw from a jigsaw;
- Always keep the big picture in mind
- Teamwork makes light work and makes it more fun
- Be methodical, one piece at a time
- When you get bored move on to another part of the task, another part of the puzzle
- Take a break and find new perspective when you begin again
- Don’t force the fit, don’t try to hard
- Enjoy a job well done but don’t linger, move on to the next one and enjoy solving problems
I think the reason I find a puzzle so relaxing is that although it is a mystery it can be solved by method, effort and focus. If you have not done a puzzle in a while then lockdown is a perfect time to order one on Amazon and do it as a family.
Sea's The Day 