Fitting The Right Pieces
Growing up, most of us have been to grandma and grandpa’s house and sometimes the only thing to do besides watching the Price Is Right was to fit together the pieces of a puzzle. Attesting to my own experience, these were not the easy dog and cat puzzles, but more in the palate of Thomas Kinkade with more colors than you could imagine, and every piece looked the same.
The frustration outweighed the joy of putting together the puzzle because accomplishing the task seemed difficult when pieces I tried to fit did not fit. I jammed a few pieces in the wrong places, however, when it was time to match up my puzzle with the box cover, my mistakes could not be hidden. I had to take my time and search more diligently for the correct pieces until I completed the puzzle.
The same is with different relationships we form with those around us. Every person in hindsight gives away pieces of themselves every day by sharing their feelings, spending time with others, and essentially being themselves. Some of those pieces are positive and others are negative. The more we interact with those relationships the more we become like the people by accepting their pieces to fit our metaphorical puzzle-ourselves. Sometimes we find out that even though we want the connections and characteristics of other people to fit, they just don’t.
There is a well-known quote by Jim Rohn that states
You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.
Think about the people you spend the most time with and how they have influenced your life. Is your life a reflection of who they are and how they act? Ask yourself if you can improve on those influences by changing the pieces on your end. Maybe you will find that the pieces you have that make up you no- longer fit the puzzles you have been trying to complete.
