Puzzle Pieces

Last night in the shower I started thinking about my current mobility program. It's been two weeks with it. An online program I paid for. 6 days a week. Coaching support. It's good value without a gym.

This is a change from the last few months. I had been programming my own mobility work using knowledge I've attained over time. It was a productive few months. I made progress in certain areas, but progress is always slow. The brain hates that.

A common theme arises a few weeks after I switch up my routine. The brain starts asking questions:

• Is this enough?
• Could we be making more progress doing something else?
• Are we pushing too hard?

It's that dreaded feeling that you're not doing enough, or you're doing something wrong altogether. I've come to think that the underlying threat is this: we hate the thought of wasted time.

A pursuit requires a significant amount of your time. The quantity of which matters as much as the quality. Time is our most precious resource. You can never hold it for longer than a second before it slips through your fingers. You can't get it back once it's gone. Make the most of it. We've heard these clichés a million times and more. It makes sense that we feel this way.

But a pursuit is a puzzle. A unique puzzle made special for you, with no instructions or time to complete.

Unfortunately you don't have all the pieces, so you go looking elsewhere. Most of the pieces can be found for free. The internet is an incredible bucket of puzzle pieces. All shapes and sizes.

Some you have to pay for. These are the pieces you consider to be most valuable to your puzzle. They are the pieces you think you need to finish. They might be, but usually they aren't. If you're lucky enough you'll buy a piece that doesn't fit at all, but instead makes you realize you had that piece all along.

Puzzles take time, and even if the piece in your hand doesn't fit, your next choice will be that much more precise.