Colman Noctor: Are young people underestimating the power of striving to achieve a goal?

While working on some Harry Potter Lego with his daughter Dr Colman Noctor notes that "the goal was not to have a finished piece of Lego, it was the process of building it"

Dr Colman Noctor: "This experience led to me having a conversation with all my children about the importance of the process and trying to get them to value their route to somewhere or something as opposed to a sole focus on the destination or end product." LEGO Harry Potter Dobby the House-Elf Figure Set

Despite never being a big Lego fan as a child, my 11-year-old daughter has recently shown an interest in it, so we often play with it together. Her older brother never showed an interest in it, so this is my first experience doing this activity, which is really enjoyable. Neither of us engage in any deep conversations or anything while we are making Lego, we mainly discuss and dispute where various pieces should or shouldn’t go and playfully enjoy when either of us misunderstand the booklet of instructions and get it wrong. Neither of us is especially good at it, which adds to the fun of the challenge — and thankfully, neither of us takes it or each other too seriously.

Last week, we were assembling a Lego model of the Dobby character from Harry Potter. After a couple of hours, when we completed the piece, we both did our customary ritual of sitting back, admiring it and congratulating each other on a job well done. My daughter said, “That’s a pity”, to which I gave a confused look, and she said: “It’s a pity that it's finished because I enjoyed doing that”. I could relate to what she said because that’s exactly how I felt. My daughter’s comment inadvertently aptly captured the existential concept of how sometimes the process of doing something is more important than the result.