Careers are like jigsaws
And it's ok if you don't have every piece in place
Over Christmas, I did a jigsaw. I’m not a massive puzzle person, but I do, every so often, get the urge to do a jigsaw. The one I chose was a design of loads of different houseplants (very much up my street) and was even from a charity shop. Win- win. Brand new, too. Win-win-win.
It’s almost finished, there are about 10 pieces left, all plain, all the same colour and I don’t know if I have the oomph (I know, hello synonym word of the year) to add them.
But there is a happy analogy for me to use: Careers are like jigsaws.
At first, the excitement! Something new! Shiny! So perfect and with such possibility.
Then, the ‘what have I done?’. We’ve all been there with a job, client or project, right? Those early days of confusion and wondering if we’ll ever get the job done or truly understand the brief. As I separated the pieces I wondered if I’d ever make sense of it.
Then, the highs and lows of finding the little matches of one-on-one pieces, like those early-stage career wins.
Followed by the rush of piecing together bigger parts, and seeing it begin to take shape.
There were breaks and then periods of intense work.
I even outsourced (thanks, Mr Holliday).
As the picture became clearer, I had clarity on what steps to take next.
Just like our careers.
And it can go one step further. Yes, a jigsaw is like a career. But our careers are also a series of jigsaws. Some bigger, some smaller, some with clearer pictures than others. Sometimes we might do part of a jigsaw with a child - it feels simple but there’s still the sense of achievement. Like those very little easy job wins.
The thing to remember is to choose the ones that we think will be right for us, keep going at it. Remember to take breaks if you can and if that jigsaw isn’t for you after all, perhaps hand it over to another charity shop and seek out a new puzzle.
If you’re keen to make sense of your own career jigsaw this year, drop me a line to chat about how coaching can piece the pieces of the puzzle together.
xJenny
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