Earlier, I talked about the need for you to gather the right puzzle pieces. I am building on the same concept but looking at it from another angle.

Take three people that are important in your life. Imagine each one of them trying to solve a jig-saw puzzle. Let’s say one of them is creating Eiffel Tower, the other one Niagara Falls and the other one Taj Mahal. Each one is a 1000 piece puzzle and it is taking a while for them to complete it. Also, to add to the problem, interestingly each one of them discover that they are missing some puzzle pieces from the pack. You want to help, of course.

You look at your collection and you find some old puzzle pieces from “The Last Supper” The puzzle pieces are still in great shape. You take the whole collection and go to the first friend who is creating the Eiffel Tower and offer him some of your puzzle pieces. Of course, that won’t help him. You try to convince him to try anyways and the effort fails. You feel sad and you repeat the exercise with your other two friends. As expected, all your efforts fail and you feel frustrated. You want to help and you took the time to help but somehow things went wrong.

I know, you are smiling – thinking that this is all common sense. Apply this to your own lives and see if you are taking the right puzzle pieces into the lives of people that matter to you most. The way you are wanting to help them may not be the way that want to be helped. The resources you have in plenty to share may not be the ones that are needed by them.

Just taking the time to think about what puzzle they are solving and what pieces are missing can make a huge difference in the way you will approach offering help to them.