Have you set goals for yourself this year? And by that I mean puzzling goals, of course. I used to; I’d set a goal for a certain number of puzzles or pieces, or to try a brand that was on my bucket list, etc. Not anymore.
With all the turmoil in the world and especially in the United States in the past several years, I’ve found it best for myself that I not set puzzling goals at the beginning of a new year. My mental health can oftentimes be quite a struggle, and setting goals that in the end aren’t achieved doesn’t help that at all.
Sometimes I need to “check out” from the blog or puzzles altogether; and sometimes I just want to stop and do nothing because depression is a beast that never gives up. So, no goals for me this year.
My hope, however, is that every day at least two puzzle pieces connect together. Even if it’s only putting two pieces together and my heart isn’t in it I hope that I can fake it until I make it.
How about you? Have you set yourself a puzzle goal for this year? A certain number of puzzles or pieces? To stop buying so many puzzles? To get yourself a wooden puzzle for the first time? To try a larger piece count for the first time? Do tell! I’d love to hear from you. 💟
On a totally different subject, I made the above image SEVEN YEARS AGO! I don’t even remember why, but I wanted question mark and of course whatever the subject I was going on about was related to jigsaw puzzling. So I took some pieces of a colorful puzzle (collage, of course), built a little question mark on my table and took this picture. It’s been unbelievably useful!
I use it on the side panel of the blog to show what I’m working on when the next puzzle on my board hasn’t been decided on yet, or if I can’t find or create a good enough image of the actual puzzle I’m working on. I use it when I ask a question of my readers, I use it when I’m philosophizing about puzzles or puzzling – I use it at least 10 times a year! That may not seem like much, but it definitely is for the blog. The pictures I take almost always are used only once, but this one has been my go-to image for years now.
Just thought I’d share the story of this picture with you, hope you found it interesting. 🧩💚
My Jigsaw Journal 
Like you, Stacey, no goals! Puzzling is a fun and relaxing thing for me and I don’t want to put any “musts” or even “shoulds” around it. I like to just choose a puzzle that calls to me at a given moment and have at it.
And I love your question mark image! I had assumed that it was stock photography, so how cool to hear that you made it yourself and that it’s been so useful for the blog. Happy goal-free puzzling today, my friend!
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Thanks Jess, happy aimless puzzling to you as well! 😎
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I don’t set specific puzzling goals either. I like your puzzle hopes idea much better. I hope to make a lot more progress on my big 42,000 piece puzzle. I also hope to start doing more smaller puzzles. 1000 pieces or less downstairs again soon. I have gotten bitten by a reading bug lately. And have not started anything new downstairs in quite sometime.
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Why are you answering me then? Get downstairs and get to puzzling! 😉
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Nope, no goals. I just retired, and while I expect that means I’ll do more puzzling, I’m not going to make myself do anything. 🙂
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Sounds like you have exactly the right attitude Alice. Happy retirement!
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My goal, as always, is not to buy more puzzles than I complete. I have failed at this several years in a row now, but maybe this year 🙂 I also take part in a FB puzzle challenge, where there’s a list with 30 items, and you complete a puzzle for each one (for example, “a fox”, or “a puzzle released in 2024”. I enjoy the challenge, and it often helps me get to puzzles that have been sitting in the to-do pile for too long. If I stop feeling it’s fun, I would have no problem abandoning the challenge, though.
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Enjoy your challenge, and I hope it remains fun all year long!
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It’s unlikely to last that long, last year I finished in March…
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No goals, just enjoying the puzzles!
For the 1st time, I didn’t finish a puzzle! It had only 2 dark and 1 light color and shades of each, 1500 pieces, and lots of threads of gold foil that caused terrible glare! It was a Christmas gift from my friend, so I felt a tiny bit guilty. It was so difficult that I put it away without even finishing the border.
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Don’t feel guilty, puzzles are supposed to be fun. You appreciated the gift, and you tried the assembly enough to know that this particular puzzle wasn’t for you.
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