{"id":98,"date":"2016-10-04T13:24:35","date_gmt":"2016-10-04T13:24:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.alchemyfor.life\/balancecoaching\/?p=98"},"modified":"2016-10-04T18:38:32","modified_gmt":"2016-10-04T18:38:32","slug":"balance-and-the-sliding-puzzle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.alchemyfor.life\/balancecoaching\/2016\/10\/04\/balance-and-the-sliding-puzzle\/","title":{"rendered":"Balance and The Sliding Puzzle"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hey! \u00a0It’s a sliding puzzle!<\/h1>\n
\"Rush

Rush Hour, a sliding block puzzle, manufactured by ThinkFun.<\/p><\/div>\n

If you’ve heard me talk about how I find balance with Time Energy and Resources, you know I do it by shifting the things you overdo to make some room for the things you want to do more (or don’t yet do because you can’t).<\/p>\n

You have heard the flask metaphor<\/a> as I’ve mentioned in other posts – pouring time, energy and resources out, filling other flasks. \u00a0 However, you may also think it sounds a lot like something else: those sliding puzzle games. \u00a0These games are usually made up of sliding squares. \u00a0You shift one thing to make room for the other and so forth, in a certain order.<\/p>\n

My son enjoyed those puzzles. \u00a0I’ve enjoyed them myself and found that I’m ok at them. \u00a0You may have tried them and agree with \u00a0the article over at How Stuff Works<\/a>\u00a0 – you think it can be pretty maddening. \u00a0It is.<\/p>\n

Trying to find balance in your own schedule can be like the puzzle. \u00a0You can and probably do feel like sliding one thing only shifts something else: same problem, different location. \u00a0Like the puzzle solver you may not know\u00a0that you are actually one step closer to solving because you lack the trail that got you there – you just see where you are. \u00a0It can be daunting. \u00a0 You can give up and just leave it alone.<\/p>\n

Though I don’t fault you for giving up on the puzzle, I don’t want you to do that with your own schedule and energy.<\/p>\n

The Difference or, Take That, Stupid Puzzle!<\/h2>\n

The difference between seeking balance and my particular way of finding it, and the sliding puzzle is as follows.<\/p>\n

Space is finite and fixed<\/strong> – when you shift the squares on the puzzle, you never create more room. \u00a0Shifting a square up leaves a hole behind it, switching one into that hole leaves a hole behind there.<\/p>\n

\"Flask\"Balance coaching, my Alchemy For Life system, is like having a puzzle that when you move one square, a hole for two or three or five tiles appears<\/em>. \u00a0 Yes, a bigger reward than the effort. \u00a0There are some simple, near effortless things we can do that make a huge difference. \u00a0Like the old ‘working smarter not harder.’<\/p>\n

One step at a time<\/strong> – The puzzle (well most of those kind of puzzles) forces you to shift one square at a time. \u00a0One square, then the next, then the next.<\/p>\n

\"Flask\"You can shift more than one thing at a time in your schedule or efforts. \u00a0We do that regularly. \u00a0Like the puzzle we sometimes find two things are connected. \u00a0Unlike the puzzle we can move them both at the same time!<\/p>\n

The number of tiles never change<\/strong> – one of the challenges of the puzzle is that there’s always just one extra space, and the number of tiles remains the same. \u00a0Thus the Puzzle Madness. \u00a0You have to work within the confines.<\/p>\n

\"Flask\"<\/p>\n

In the course of coaching, some of the tiles may go away. \u00a0Meaning, we may limit or remove an activity that you didn’t want to do, and that removal may make room for more than one other tile. \u00a0In fact you may remove a tile and not replace it immediately*. \u00a0 \u00a0Along the same lines, some of the tiles may change size, grow larger or smaller. \u00a0It’s a much more complex and wonderful kind of puzzle. \u00a0A little action may create a big reward.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Understand that it is not as complicated or overwhelming as it seems. \u00a0When it is all laid out for you, it becomes very clear. \u00a0And, actually fun.<\/p>\n

Unlike that darn puzzle.<\/p>\n

\ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

* \u00a0When people do that on their own, for a long period of time it’s sometimes called boredom<\/a>. \u00a0See my post titled Congratulations: You’re Bored<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hey! \u00a0It’s a sliding puzzle! If you’ve heard me talk about how I find balance with Time Energy and Resources, you know I do it by shifting the things you overdo to make some room for the things you want to do more (or don’t yet do because you can’t). You have heard the flask […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,13],"tags":[14,6],"class_list":["post-98","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-about","category-balance-wisdom","tag-balance-wisdom","tag-tips"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alchemyfor.life\/balancecoaching\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alchemyfor.life\/balancecoaching\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alchemyfor.life\/balancecoaching\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alchemyfor.life\/balancecoaching\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alchemyfor.life\/balancecoaching\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.alchemyfor.life\/balancecoaching\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":136,"href":"https:\/\/www.alchemyfor.life\/balancecoaching\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98\/revisions\/136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alchemyfor.life\/balancecoaching\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alchemyfor.life\/balancecoaching\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alchemyfor.life\/balancecoaching\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}