Putting Your World Back Together

Another year is almost over!

Before you pick up the broken pieces of all the things gone bad and toss them in the trash bin, press pause and rewind. You may be tossing out a tiny spec of valuable wisdom needed to make that change you hoped for.

I recently heard a lovely story that made me smile. Hope you enjoy it and that inspires you as it did for me.

There was a man who had a little boy. Every night, when the man got home from work, the little boy waited for him and they spend most of the evening playing together.

One night, the man came home with extra work he needed to complete. Not to disappoint his little boy, he wanted to give him something to do while he finished his work. He looked around his home office and saw a magazine with a large map of the world on the cover. He got an idea. He removed the cover and patiently tore it up into small pieces and placed them in box. Then, he gave the boy the box and explained that inside was a map of the world and that by the time he would put it back together, his work would be finished and they could play together.

This would surely keep the boy busy, he thought. The boy had never seen a picture of the world before. So, it would give the man the couple of hours he needed.

Twenty minutes went by and the boy ran to the man, “Okay, I finished. Can we play now?”

The man was shocked. “That’s impossible,” he said. He got up to go look at it and surely, the picture of the world was all put together with every small piece in its place.

When the man asked the boy how he did it, the boy answered, “On the back of the page was a picture of a man. When I put the man together, the whole world fell into place.”

When you look back on this past year, surely you’ve had your share of struggles and setbacks. Maybe it feels like your world was torn to pieces and now seems impossible to put back together.

Instead of condemning the past year, reflect on it.

Don’t try to put the outside pieces of your world together. On the inside, is the picture of YOU; start with that.

What lesson have you learned from one mistake you made? Or, from a relationship conflict you had?
What guilt or regret have you been carrying? In this moment, how is it serving you to move forward? Let go of the illusion of being perfect, focus on the small piece of the puzzle in front of you. The others will fall into place.
Remember ALL your accomplishments. The big ones and every small achievement, especially if it helped someone! What beautiful lesson about the special gift you’ve kept hidden can you celebrate?

Bonus question:

What can you let go out of your busy life to enjoy being in sync with yourself?

Everything great starts small: a smile, a laugh, a word, all have the power to create change far beyond ourselves. There’s no effort too small; sometimes the smallest act makes the biggest difference. Start from where you are now and use your own answers to the above questions. It’s in putting all the small pieces within yourself together that your outer world falls into place.