(My) “Lego” Theory
Simple And Powerful Analogy About Life And Processes
This article assumes you have an idea of what Lego is. I will be very simplistic to explain and will not try to convince you at all.
La version en español de este artículo se encuentra: (Mi) Teoría “Lego”. Una simple y poderosa analogía sobre la… | by Donald Murillo | Mar, 2023 | Medium
There are many versions of this Analogy:
- “How do you eat an Elephant sized burger?”.
- “You climb a latter one step at a time”.
- “You move forward one step after another”.
- etc.
All of them represent that the process requires small and incremental steps to achieve a goal. I believe it is a valuable idea and it is worth internalizing it. But these analogies have one thing in common which is that there is some direction or goal to achieve. They also do not account for moving sideways or getting an electrical lift to move faster. They are basically 2D in nature.
I will try to present a similar analogy with a more, of what I consider, realistic notion of process and life itself. The 3D version of them.
The Lego set — of life
This is how life starts, you either get a Lego set — Comes with the board, pieces and instructions how to build it, or you can just get the board — period. But realistically most people get an incomplete set.
Maybe they get the instructions and no pieces; or, they get the instructions and the pieces, but the pieces are incomplete or belong to another set; or, they get the pieces and no instructions; or, they get only pages of the instructions and some of the pieces… etc. Some other will get a prebuilt set and board.
The Lego Instructions
The instructions will come in the form of, education, family, generational knowledge, generational wealth and — YouTube. Sometimes as you start building with the instructions, you realize the other possibilities these mini constructions bring. Some will write their own instructions and share them with the world.
The Lego board
I’ve come to think of life as THE Lego board. Life is there, like the board. Vast, and perhaps, overwhelmingly large. The board can be expanded by achievements in life such as marriage and children.
The Lego Pieces
As mentioned, not everyone gets all the pieces they need to build anything with their life Lego. Most people will study and work to get pieces. They will use those pieces to build on the board, whatever they can, want or have instructions for. Some of the most daring people will even break the pieces they have to create new ones.
Bottom-line:
Life (or a project) is like building a Lego, you will eventually collect enough pieces on the board to make something out of it. Even if there are instructions, you will likely have the option to choose your own path!
