Jugglers - all of us!!

Today, while i was doing my daily chores of the day I suddenly remembered a speech that I had heard couple of years back. you can understand that this particular speech had left a great impression on me because first, I listened to a speech! this is a big deal because i am not a speech kinda person, i don't like listening to them (have the tendency of falling asleep) and i don't like giving them either (have the tendency of making others fall asleep) but i did listen to this one with open eyes and an open mind. And second, i remember it! after almost two years, i still remember it... well, most of it. actually just one point (but i remember, that has got to count for something, right?!) so this post deals with that one point that i still remember after almost two years.

i had heard this said speech delivered at the convocation of IIMB... before you raise your eyebrows and get all impressed, it was not my convocation, i merely attended it... don't have the inclination and the brains to make the cut! actually it was my super brainy brother who got through, not only IIMB but the rest five too!! (yes, i am showing off! so sue me!!) getting back to the point, the speaker, Mr. whats-his-name shared with us an anecdote / story which goes something like this...

In our entire life, we juggle a lot of balls, where balls stand for relationships (comprising of friends and family), job, career choices, success, household chores (yes that was a ball too!), work pressure, tensions, exams, grades, presentations, projects, assignments, parties, outings, happiness, sadness etc etc. these balls are basically are all the emotions, the situations and everything else that form a part of your life. All these are rubber balls except the relationship ball which is made of glass. so while juggling, there would be time when one of these balls would fall because your attention would be on the other balls. for example, if you are focusing on your parties ball, the career ball can fall... or if you concentrate on your job balls, maybe the happiness ball falls... or if you pay too much attention to your happiness ball, the sadness ball falls! Now, since all these balls are rubber balls, they always, and i mean always bounce back up. so, if your career is not going anywhere, it means it has just fallen (not necessarily due to your lack of attention) and rest assured it will come on track sooner or later... the ball will bounce back! however, an important thing to note is that there is only one glass ball - relationship ball. if you concentrate on any one ball and in that process, if your relationship ball falls, it will break. out of all these balls, it is only the relationship ball that is the most fragile and requires extra attention. And as they say success tastes a lot sweeter if you have someone to share it with, right?

the solution to make sure that none of the balls that you are juggling fall, is balance. not one thing is more important than the other... all of them require equal amount of attention, neglecting any one ball would only result in all of them falling down!

So, now you need to decide, are you giving too much attention to any one ball...? well, are you?