Do you remember those “connect the dot” books you might have had when you were a kid? You know, the ones that had a page full of numbers placed at seemingly random positions on the page – just a big scattering of numbers. No pattern. No guide. Just a starting point. I sure remember them. I loved those pages in my “Highlights” magazine that I received every month.
Recently, a good friend of mine posed a pretty deep question about “life experiences” that caused me to start thinking about the journey we take through life. It led me to, of all places, those classic “connect the dots” pages that I loved as a kid. Why did I like them so much? Maybe it was the opportunity to create something that was very different in the end than it was at the start? Perhaps it was the unknown of what might result from all of the seemingly random twists and turns? At the time, I probably enjoyed them because I ended up with a pretty cool picture at the end. But now, as I reflect on those pages, I have a very different perspective. A perspective that is a little deeper. A perspective that led me to consider the connection between those “connect the dots” pages and our journey through life.
You might be thinking – a connect the dots page and one’s life journey? What’s the relation? Just consider, as you start a connect the dots page, you really only know two things, where to start and where to end. Between those two points, it just looks like a jumbled mess of numbers and dots with no rhyme or reason. Without connecting the dots, you really have no idea what you are creating. Even as you continue the process of connecting the dots, you still aren’t able to determine what this masterpiece will be. Until it hits you – there will be a point when you know exactly what it is that you are drawing. It is only then that you can sit back and start seeing what it is that you’re in the process of creating. I believe life is like that in a lot of ways. We don’t always know what our “picture” in life will be in the future. We take countless paths over the course of our life. We make decisions every day. We create connections with those we meet. Those are all dots in our life’s journey. But do they mean anything, these random dots along our life path?
Steve Jobs, the fearless leader of Apple summed it up perfectly in a speech where he was talking about three life lessons he’s learned. One of his life lessons focused on those seemingly random steps in our life, those dots. The steps we take…well, just because they are there in front of us. Those steps lead to a path whose destination we really know nothing about. Yet, we unknowingly keep following these dots.
Sadly, it seems that often we don’t understand how important those seemingly meaningless and random decisions and connections we make along the way can help us in understanding our life “picture”. In those moments, we really have no way of knowing where they are leading us. All we have is trust. Trust that those dots will connect in some way. So, I think we owe it to ourselves to be thankful for those opportunities, those decisions and those connections. While we might not know how they are cultivating a path for us, know that they are. They are happening for a reason. That random interaction with a stranger. The decision to decline a job offer. The person you meet at a party you didn’t want to go to who ends up changing your life.
Just as we have to step back from a connect the dots picture at some point to get a sense of what we are creating, so too do we need to pause and take a step back in our life in order to see the picture that all of those dots on our path have painted. It is only when we turn around to look at the path we traveled that clarity about our present comes. Perhaps that’s the beauty of life – not knowing where you’ll end up but knowing that where you end up is exactly where you are supposed to be…because the dots connected.
Connecting The Dots
