A few weeks ago, I was in the midst of a lot of thought about one particular project we were working on here in the office. I couldn’t think of anything else, I was getting nowhere in my thought process so I wasn’t helping move the project along and I was getting increasingly frustrated because it was the weekend and I was supposed to be relaxing.

At some point, I came upon a puzzle that my daughters were putting together. It was a fabulous shot of Marilyn Monroe from the waist up in a low cut dress. I sat down at the puzzle and started fishing through the pieces. Before long, I was enthralled. Each new piece I found was a victory and gave me motivation to move on to the next piece and the next piece and so on. Before I knew it, I had been sitting there for two hours and had a good portion of the puzzle finished.

Suddenly, I realized I hadn’t thought about the project for two hours. Of course, that realization made me start to think about the project again. Something was different, though. Now, I was having great ideas. I grabbed my journal and started writing them down.

Clearly, I’m not the only person who gets into some kind of creative block from time to time. Because of that, I decided we need to play some more at the office. So, we bought some new furniture for our workspace and bought a 2000 piece puzzle for the staff. Now, whenever any one of us feels some sort of block, we can go work on the puzzle for a while. It might sound crazy, but I’m betting that it will only serve to make us all even more creative.

Looking at the puzzle today in its beginning stages, I’m also struck by how it’s a lot like an idea. It’s there, kind of all jumbled up on the table with the potential to become something bigger and more beautiful. It’s raw, but we’re all going to work on it and refine it. Eventually, the puzzle, like our ideas will become something beautiful with a little help from all of us. Stay tuned and see what develops.