Just Find the Next Puzzle Piece

You only need to focus on what's in front of you.

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How often have you spent time in your head thinking about the future? M Night Shyamalan can relate.

Shyamalan is a successful movie director whose movies have grossed billions - think Unbreakable for starters. Yet, he still is filled with anxiety, worrying if anyone will like his next movie. Once, after mortgaging his house to finance one of his movies, he rushed to put a rough cut in front of buyers. No surprise, they all said no.

With his anxiety at an all time high, he sat down to embark on a 1000 piece-puzzle with his daughter. The puzzle looked impossible and they had no idea where to start. They decided to simply try and find just two connecting pieces even if that was all they could accomplish that night. The next day, they connected a few more. Soon they conquered the puzzle.

It occurred to Shyamalan that his source of anxiety around his films was no different than the anxiety of solving the puzzle. Rather than worry about the big picture AKA the entire puzzle, he focused on finding the next puzzle piece. With this idea in mind, he decided to focus his daily energy into small incremental changes and improve the film for buyers. Day after day, with laser focus he concentrated only on the cut, not the outcome and if it would sell. Soon enough he found a buyer.

We may not create movies that generate hundreds of millions of dollars, but we all fall prey to overthinking and worry.

One of my favorite lessons came from my boss at PEOPLE Magazine. As a company, we had an overall goal of $500mm in sales and frankly, it terrified us. It seemed massive. Each week, he reminded us not to worry about $500mm in sales, just focus on getting three sales calls a day. Each day, we turned our energy to getting those calls, those calls soon turn into proposals, and those turn into wins. We controlled only what we had in front of us and slowly this built into success.

You’ve heard or read about my clicker method. This is another way of not getting overwhelmed with company goals and just focusing on making 25 calls a day. I can control making 25 sales calls a day - I can’t control how many people will want to advertise. But in the end, focusing on what I can - those calls lead to hitting revenue projections consistently.

Have a presentation due? Don’t spend time worrying about whether your boss will like it, or you’ll get a good reception from the audience, or if it will close the sale. Just focus on making that current slide as impactful as possible.

You have a test tomorrow? Don’t worry about failing and if this test will crush your GPA or lead to not getting into college. Just focus on learning what’s on the page right in front of you.

Need to lose some weight? Don’t think about the total weight. Instead of just focus on taking the first step. This could be doing today’s workout, or not eating that cupcake sitting there. Maintain focus on only what’s in front of you and soon the pounds will come off.

The 1000-piece puzzle, like many things, can seem daunting. But if you redirect your attention to what you can control and what’s right in front of you, pretty soon you’ll solve of most of life’s puzzles.