Glass balls don’t make the ideal juggling balls. You need something soft that with bounce when they fall to the floor.
Glass balls don’t bounce.
They tend to smash to smithereens.
Not good.
Even worse when the glass balls being juggled represent different aspects of your life.
The glass balls of overwhelm
If you’ve been following my blogs recent you will know that I’ve been struggling. My confidence has been hit by some on-line bullying. I’ve compensated by striving to serve the Canbace/CNBC tribe in more ways. I wanted to prove my critics wrong.
The trouble is there are only 24hrs in a day. There is only so much I can do each day. I only have so many spoons at my disposal. There are no spoons in reserve. When they are gone, they are gone. [If you are not familiar with the concept of managing spoons to deal with chronic fatigue you can read my blog here.]
Overwhelm was starting to turn into burnout.
Something had to change. I needed to stay true to the idea of Creating A New, Beautiful And Courageous Existence that was realistic and sustainable.
Time to look at my glass balls and reassess some priorities.
For more thoughts on how to deal with overwhelm please read the article here.
There is one more change to my workload that hasn’t been announced yet. However, Andrew and I are already feeling the benefit of this change. I’ll be making the announcement in my blog next Monday went talk about stopping firefighting and dealing with burnout. I will share the link here when it is published.
Practice makes perfect
It’s all well and good writing about things in theory: however, we need to start applying what we learn. Look at the glass balls in your life. Are you keeping them all in the air safely? Do you have too many balls in the air at the moment? Are you suffering from overwhelm? Do you need to put all the balls down for a short while to look at which ones are the most important? What step(s) can you take today to protect the most important glass balls?
Be kind to yourself …
In CANBACE friendship!
If anything I have written resonates I’d love to hear from you in the comments. I appreciate that this can be a difficult subject to speak openly about. If you don’t want me to publish your comment on the website, please let me know. I will keep your words private.
Brandi Lytle
Hi, Nicci. First, let me say that I understand overwhelm and the stressful feeling of juggling glass balls. When I was teaching, I had set down nearly every ball except work because it was so overwhelming. When I resigned and started blogging, I promised I would maintain better balance. After a year and a half, however, work was beginning to take over again. So, I reassessed and made adjustments. Because I’ve learned that while aerial yoga, for example, can be set aside for a moment if other things need to take priority, I shouldn’t allow it to be lost. (And it was being lost when I was teaching…) Because doing aerials makes me feel strong and beautiful, plus the exercise is good for me. That being said, I’m glad you are taking the time to make adjustments. Because while work might seem like the most important ball, things like friendships and volunteer commitments and simply doing things you enjoy make life happy. And you deserve to be happy, my friend. Sending you hugs…
Nicci Fletcher
Hi Brandi – thanks for your lovely, supportive and understanding comment. Sorry for the delay: my juggling unexpectedly increased a little this week. All sorted now AND all good!
It is amazing how quickly the balance shifts. Yet the changes, and their impact, are often individually so small individually that we don’t realise what is happening until we reach breaking point. You are completely right that some things, whilst not a priority, shouldn’t be lost. You aerials are a brilliant example of that. Something which has huge intangible benefits is as important as the ones with very obvious tangible benefits. I’m not sure if that was clear in the video: I had recorded myself into a corner and was starting to waffle so I pressed stop.
Thank you for you continued support and you friendship. Also for the hug, which was greatly appreciated. Sending one back to you …