Zoom In; Zoom Out

Piece 2984.

I placed it and the shape fit. Something wasn’t quite right. The colour looked a little different. I looked at the remaining 16 pieces. None fit this space.

I called in the cavalry, a.k.a my family. What am I not seeing?

Standing, and looking down on the entire puzzle, it didn’t take long to spot the same shaped piece on the opposite side of the puzzle. Likewise, it fit the space but was a slightly different colour.

I swapped them and voila, I was minutes from completing pieces 2985 to 3000. Ta-da. The Christmas puzzle is Done. Finished. Complete. Tick that box.

As I closed in on the final pieces of this large, long-term puzzle project, my focus had become laser-like. I was completely zoomed in on the remaining small area to solve. I wasn’t paying attention to the other 99% of the picture.

It’s a trap we can fall into with any longer term project.

When we are stuck down in the details, we can lose sight of the big picture.

When we remember to, zoom in and zoom out, to simultaneously hold the pieces and the whole, we get a much better result.

It works for jigsaw puzzles and it works for life and work’s puzzles, too.

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