The Lego Kit of Life (by Design)

What if I said that life was a set of Lego® bricks ~ all sorts of sizes, shapes, colors with a few bricks fixed together, unbreakable, but most of them easily taken apart and rearranged?  If you’re like me, you love (yup, you still do, face it!) playing, building, creating with Legos (that’s why I hang out with engineers and makers).

Life is a set of legos, all sizes, shapes, and colors. What will you build today?

Our life’s lego bricks are made up of family, friends, pets, hobbies, curiosities and interests, experiences, physical-mental-emotional-spiritual health, knowledge, education, street smarts, common sense (or lack thereof), culture, rituals, beliefs, values, skills, talents, accomplishments, places lived and visited and more.

Take a look at your Lego set.  What bricks do you want to toss, just plain get rid of? What bricks do you want to get more of or even create (a new color or shape or size!)?  What bricks do you want less of? How would you like to rearrange your bricks for tomorrow, the next 2 years, or maybe even the next 5 years? I’m serious, think about this.  There is so so much you can do with your bricks and very few of them are permanently connected together!

What did you learn from pondering and organizing your bricks? What’s holding you back from tossing some bricks, adding new bricks, rearranging bricks? Why? What are you afraid of? We’re all afraid of something.  What would you do if I took away those bricks and gave you the ones you wanted? What would you do if you weren’t held back or scared anymore?

What would your best friend, significant other, colleague or mentor advise you to do with your bricks? How would they arrange them for you? What if you looked at yourself that way?

Here’s my challenge to you - try thinking of your life as legos.  Decide which ones you want to keep, toss, rearrange for now and the next couple of years.  What does that look like? What could it look like if you had not brick-limitations? And hey, if you need to go buy a set of bricks, this is your excuse! Take it!

image credits: lego.com; static1.squarespace.com

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Deb Mills-Scofield helps companies create and implement actionable, adaptable, measurable, and profitable innovation-based strategic plans. A Partner at Glengary LLC, an early-stage Venture Capital firm, she works with service, manufacturing, and high-tech companies from large global to early-stage enterprise. Deb is also a co-creator of Business Model Generation by Alex Osterwalder, and contributor to several books including The Leader’s Guide to Radical Management and Trust Inc.: Strategies for Building Your Company’s Most Valuable Assets. Deb’s focus is innovation culture-process-commercialization, leadership, and strategic alignment. Connect on LinkedIn or follow @dscofield