Life is Like Legos

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“Learn the rules like a pro so you can break them like an artist.” – Pablo Picasso

This weekend I played a lot of Legos with my kids. Mr. D was building a house, finding any square or rectangular pieces and putting them together.

I was following an instruction booklet to build a teddy bear. I spent most of my time looking through the 800 pieces for pieces the size of my pinky fingernail that were the right size, shape and color to match the instructions.

It struck me that life in general, and creativity specifically, is a lot like building Legos. We start out life creating off the cuff – listening to our gut, stacking and combining from what’s available. It’s intuitive and faster but it’s not long before we are told there are norms and expectations we are supposed to be adhering to.

Then we discover the instruction booklet and shift into making the prescribed things. In this mode, we make things that cutely and appropriately match other people’s expectations and instructions. But it takes a lot longer to find exactly the right pieces and we have to guard the pieces we find really carefully lest someone else takes the only one that will fit the specifications.

Once I was done building my teddy bear, I discovered a third way. I started building a structure with some of the remnants of our past creations. It built on both the structured and unstructured components. I went back to working like Mr. D and listening to my gut.

Seems like this is a great place to get to in creation and in life – where we can still be mindful of others, incorporating what has already been built, but leave the instructions behind.

53 thoughts on “Life is Like Legos”

  1. Love this analogy! This weekend we assembled my granddaughter’s new bed and trundle combo, and for the first time she was in the primary helper spot while I was the secondary helper. My daughter is the chief assembler now. I told Miss T that her mom was her age when she assembled her first bookcase by herself. Miss T said it felt weird to be in the primary helper spot, but that’s the way kids learn, is to promote them and them help them in their new roles!

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  5. What a great analogy! There’s validity to off-the-cuff creations, as well as following instructions, but I think you’re right that there is some magic in the space where “proven results” meets “untapped potential”. 😊

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  6. A virtuous insight, Wynne, so long as our dispatch of past practices doesn’t throw out something essential. I trust you with this strategy in your hands.

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  7. I went through some of these thoughts and discussions about creativity and re-creativity when teaching music, Wynne… the difference between composing and playing from music… if you play the notes written you can still be creative in the way you interpret them… if you improvise without written music you are starting from a known tune but creating your own version of it… In my mind it’s about whether or not you follow the instructions to the letter (flat-pack furniture gives little opportunity for creativity!), or the levels of creativity you display in your interpretation of them.

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  9. What a great wake up call and it’s so eat to get sucked into as we move through life . I love that you transitioned into a more natural and intuitive approach . In my class I’m we never had any instruction books for that reason when doing LEGO or building projects

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  10. I love your metaphor when it comes to creativity, but I was pleased to see Malcomsmusings bring up the one counter example that came to my mind. Having just moved and having had to acquire a few little bits of flat-pack furniture, I learned that following the instruction manual is sometimes essential! 😳😂

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  13. It would seem there’s a time and place for creativity and another time and place for following the instruction booklet. Every now and then comes a moment to combine the two. It’s the wise person who can discern which approach will accomplish the task at hand.

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  14. Oh I do love a good analogy and this was a beautiful one to start the week. 💕 Such wise moments and observations during fun and play with Mr D.

    I agree that the manuals and instructions are so helpful but there are also moments when it’s best to let our children run with their creativity. And that’s like life itself, so so true.

    T is also into building things, using magnet tiles right now, whereas it was blocks before. And it’s so fun and inspiring to let his imagination go wild.

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  16. Listen to your gut! Oh what a beautiful analogy between life and Legos Wynne! I’ve been marching to the beat of a different drummer longer than I can remember. I agree, let your imagination go wild! Oh, from the mouth of babes! 🤗💖🥰

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  22. I really like how you describe this balance. It’s nice to follow instructions on how to build the bear, or whatever Lego project that’s in the box. And it’s also fun to just build whatever comes to mind in the moment 🙂

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  24. What fantastic insight Wynne. We still have our over-30-year-old big bucket of Legos from when our son was little. We pull them out occasionally to create, destress, and play with the grandkids. Lego building time is a great conversation starter.

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  25. This is the perspective I have In every day life. I’m currently homeless and I started my blog with my free phone and built to 26 subscribers and would love more subscribe to Creative tent living WordPress.com and follow my journey.

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  27. A beautiful way to think about the impact Legos can have on a person. Both making things freeform and making things following instructions are good, but it’s all a matter of what you want to accomplish in that moment.

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  28. Great Lego analogy! Another part might be that if we don’t take care of our little issues (like cleaning up the Legos when we’re done) they may cause an oversized amount of pain later (when we step on them barefoot!) 😁

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