Life Puzzle—the Universal model to understand your SELF…and all others.

Here’s the Life Puzzle in a nutshell:

5 Edges for creating SELF:

  1. Physical
  2. Emotional
  3. Thinking
  4. Sexual
  5. Spiritual

The 16 core areas are:

  1. Self-responsibility
  2. Nutrition
  3. Exercise
  4. Feelings
  5. Thinking
  6. Communication
  7. Relationships/Partnerships
  8. Sexuality
  1. Parenting/family
  2. Community
  3. Work
  4. Play
  5. Financial responsibility
  6. Special Challenges
  7. Spirituality/values
  8. Finding Meaning (living life in relationship to the reality of death)

The Life Puzzle came about by asking one question—what does a person need to know and do to build a whole and dynamic life? And that question came about when I realized that despite 12-16 years of schooling, we are not taught the answer to that question. We’re taught algebra and history and geography but little to nothing about how to be a whole human being.

The Life Puzzle: A Universal framework for Human Development

At its core, the Life Puzzle is remarkable because it transcends all human differences – culture, language, wealth, geography – while honoring individual uniqueness. Here’s how:

Every human being on Earth has:

  • The same 16 core life areas that need development
  • 5 fundamental edges: Physical, Emotional, Thinking, Sexual, and Spiritual
  • A SELF that emerges as these components come together

Yet within this shared framework, each person creates their own unique pattern:

  • Like fingerprints, no two Life Puzzles are identical
  • Individual choices shape how each piece develops
  • Personal values and circumstances influence priorities

This dual nature – universal structure with individual expression – makes the Life Puzzle a powerful tool for both:

  • Understanding ourselves: Seeing how our particular pieces fit together
  • Understanding others: Recognizing our shared human experience while respecting differences

Think of it like music: while we all have access to the same musical notes, each culture and individual creates unique compositions. The Life Puzzle provides the universal “notes” of human development, but you compose your own life “song.”

This framework helps us:

  • Bridge cultural divides by showing our common human needs
  • Celebrate diversity in how we each meet those needs
  • Build empathy by understanding our shared journey
  • Maintain individuality while recognizing our connection to all humanity around us

You may not have been taught—but you can teach your SELF.

Here’s the bottom-line. You weren’t taught Wholeness. But you can teach your SELF.  If you’d like to learn more, there is a series of Youtube videos–@Iamlifepuzzle that will walk you through the basics of the Life Puzzle as a framework for wholeness. These practical, tangible, and easy to understand videos provide the basic information you need to teach yourself and begin applying Life Puzzle to your daily life. These are tools you can use repeatedly in your daily life.

Start by going through the first 10 in an orderly progression. Each builds on the next. After that you can pop around to different videos and look for those that interest you the most at this time in your life.

The Life Puzzle becomes a daily check-in framework that you can fall back on whenever you need to—especially in a fast-paced world that can leave you feeling like you’re spinning! When you’re going through challenging times, the Life Puzzle helps you ground it. Every challenging time is about learning to take that challenge and use it to grow your life. So you take the challenge and see what pieces are being impacted by it—and ask, “What do I need to learn to get through this?” It gives you perspective that even when things are really tough, it’s about discovering which piece or pieces need attention so you can emerge beyond the challenge and add to your wholeness.