What would your puzzle pieces be?
Many people feel something is missing in their life — even when everything looks fine on the outside.
They are busy, responsible, productive… yet somewhere inside, there is a quiet sense that something essential has been left out.
Often, the missing pieces are the things that truly make us come alive.
This simple exercise helps you discover what those pieces are.
Do you know what makes you tick?
Do you know what truly makes you come alive?
What are the activities that light you up, the ones that make time disappear, lift your energy, and leave you feeling more like yourself?
Many people move through life without ever asking this question. They fail to create electrifying lives for themselves because they make decisions from their head instead of their heart — choosing what seems logical, responsible, or expected.
And slowly, life begins to feel flat.
Not wrong. Just not alive.
If that sounds familiar, this exercise can help you reconnect with what truly energizes you.
The Puzzle Exercise
How do you listen to your heart?
The first step in finding out what makes you happy is to identify the activities that inspire you.
Once you recognize and start using them, your life will get easier, you’ll have more fun, and you’ll find the satisfaction that comes from doing what you love.
To do this exercise, imagine your life is a puzzle.
Each piece represents something that brings you energy, joy, inspiration, or deep interest.
Your task is to discover what those pieces are.
Take a sheet of paper and draw a blank puzzle with several pieces. (You can also download and print the blank puzzle template if you prefer.)
Each puzzle piece represents an activity, a person, or a place that lights you up.
Example
Let’s say that you love photography and like taking pictures wherever you go.
Every time you do this, you feel good about yourself, your energy increases, you get happier, and you feel inspired.
Whenever you take pictures, something shifts inside you.
Your attention sharpens. Your energy rises. You feel curious, creative, alive.
That becomes one puzzle piece.
Write Photography on one of the pieces.
Maybe another piece is hiking in nature.
You love hiking, and being outside clears your mind and reconnects you with yourself.
Write Hiking on another piece.
Keep going.
Fill in the blank pieces whenever you notice an activity that lights you up, something you enjoy doing that makes you forget time.
Your puzzle pieces might include things like:
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Traveling
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Cooking
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Writing
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Dancing
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Painting
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Gardening
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Building things
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Organizing
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Learning something new
Anything that makes you feel deeply engaged and alive qualifies.
How to Recognize a Real Puzzle Piece
A true puzzle piece has one important quality:
It consistently increases your sense of aliveness.
Every time you do it, you feel more energized, more present, stronger, and more connected to yourself.
These activities are not draining. They give you energy rather than take it away.
Bringing the Pieces Together
Once you’ve identified your puzzle pieces, begin grouping them.
Some pieces may belong to:
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Personal projects
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Career ideas
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Creative outlets
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Your ideal lifestyle
When you start building your life around these pieces, something powerful happens:
Life becomes lighter.
You experience more flow, more inspiration, and more fulfillment — because your life is aligned with what naturally energizes you.
Why This Matters
Many people feel lost because they try to design their lives based on what they should do.
This exercise helps you design your life based on what actually brings you alive.
And when you follow that energy, direction becomes much clearer.
Once you begin noticing the activities that energize you, a clearer picture of your life starts to emerge.
The pieces slowly come together.
Often, the life you are meant to live is already hidden in the things you naturally love.
Start with the puzzle.
Your life will show you the rest.
Your Turn
Take a quiet moment today and begin sketching your puzzle.
Write down a few activities that make you feel energized, curious, and deeply engaged — the things that make time disappear when you do them.
You don’t have to figure everything out at once.
Just start adding some of the pieces.
And if you discover something surprising, I’d love to hear about it.
You can write to me at info@karinlehmann.com.
Sometimes one small insight can change the direction of an entire life.
This exercise is taken from my book ALIVE: A Practical Guide to Get Out of Your Head and Into Your Heart.
If you’d like to explore this idea further, the book offers many more tools to help you reconnect with your gifts
and create a life that truly feels alive.
Good luck, and as always, thank you for reading,
Karin
Continue the Journey
If you liked this post, you may enjoy exploring further:
ALIVE: A Practical Guide to Get Out of Your Head and into Your Heart.
More from the blog
7 Signs You Haven’t Found Your True Voice Yet
Want to Come Alive And Find Your Gift?
The Art of Aliveness – How to Listen From the Heart
You’ll find more inspiration for living with courage and aliveness.