The Cube

Here's a theory that I've been kicking around for a while: life is like a Rubik's cube - sometimes you have to make it worse before you can make it better.

There is only 1 correct answer and 43 quintillion wrong ones for Rubik's Cube. God's algorithm is the answer that solves the puzzle in the least number of moves. One eighth of the world's population has laid hands on 'The Cube'.

Named after its inventor, Ernö Rubik, the Rubik’s cube was first invented in 1974. Unlike most toys available on the market today, Ernö Rubik did not set out to invent a best-selling puzzle, but instead to solve a complex structural design problem. To teach his architecture students, Rubik developed the cube as a model to understand how blocks could move independently without falling apart. After twisting the multi-colour blocks in the model, Rubik realized that returning the model to its original configuration was not a light task. After a month of trial, error and incremental victories, Rubik solved his puzzle.

Anyone that’s tried to solve a Rubik’s cube before knew there are really hard.

The truth is I’m not a genius and I couldn’t solve a Rubik’s cube on my own, at least not without putting in ridiculous amount of time that would be a waste to spend. Believe me, when I was younger I tried to solve one for hours and hours but I never got close. After solving one side of the cube, I could never fathom how to solve the next without destroying the first. My brain is just not as geared towards this kind of special thinking, the algorithms definitely don’t come easy to me.

Eventually I'd get frustrated and give up. At this point, there was always a part of me that wanted to just remove the stickers (or take the pieces apart) and replace them so it looked as if I completed the puzzle, but I knew this would have been an empty victory

But does the fact that I wasn’t born with this kind of brainpower mean that I should give up on ever solving one if I really wanted to? Should I just accept my fate, put my Rubik’s cube at the back of my shelf and never touch it again? Of course not! If there are resources and willing people out there to teach me how to do something I can’t, why shouldn’t I take advantage of them?

Through our lives we often point to our own natural abilities as the reasons for our shortcomings. We make excuses such as not being smart enough to explain why we can’t accomplish certain things, and because of these excuses we give up early, and don’t preserve using every means at our disposal.

The truth is we don’t need natural talents and abilities to accomplish great things or succeed in our life; we just need to approach things the right way. We can save ourselves the time and struggle and pain of trying to solve life’s algorithms by ourselves and instead learn from others. 

I’ll admit there are some areas of our life where we may want to figure something out for ourselves to have the deep understanding of it that we may need. If we have the natural ability to do this, without spending more time on it than it’s worth.

Be efficient with our life, there’s no reason to struggle and suffer trying to reinvent the wheel when someone else has already done it for we and can show us how. In life results tend to be what matter and if learning from others can get us better results in shorter time there’s no reason not to take advantage of it. Don’t give up on something that’s too difficult for us, there’s always a way to accomplish what we want, even if we have to ask someone who’s already gotten it how. Identify the difficult Rubik’s Cube areas of your life, and learn some algorithms to master them.

Note: My work is like solving Rubik Cube;You think you're getting close to figuring it out, but then someone comes along and mixes it up again, and takes some of the stickers off while they're at it.