Juggling

This morning, when doing my daily tarot card pull (a part of my morning ritual that helps me to set a sort of energetic intention for the day), I pulled the Two of Pentacles. The Two of Pentacles is a card that's all about the delicate balance required for juggling multiple priorities. Here are a few of my favorite interpretations of this card:

Pulling this card got me thinking about a blog post I've been meaning to write for a while, so here it is.

Several years ago I saw a quote online. A little digging on the internet suggests it came from a Georgia Tech commencement speech given by Brian Dyson, then-CEO of Coca-Cola, in 1991 (a full transcript of the speech can be found here; it's a wild thing to imagine a CEO saying this in 2024, but I digress). The part of the speech that I'm interested in occurs near the end, and the gist of it is this: all of us are constantly juggling multiple things in our lives, which we can visualize as various balls. Some of those balls are made of rubber, and will bounce back if we drop them. Other balls, however, are made of glass, and if we drop those, they will, at best, become marred, and at worst, they'll shatter. It's crucial to know which balls are which. In Dyson's example, work is a rubber ball; relationships, health, and spirit are glass balls.

I recognize the imperfection of the metaphor—some people's jobs are life-or-death and fall into more of a glass ball category, and others can't afford to find out what category their jobs fall into because they're barely getting by. And I certainly have relationships that are resilient enough to survive being dropped on occasion. But I still think it's a useful lens for prioritizing the things that we juggle everyday.

In a class a few semesters ago I wrote a reflection in which I expanded on this metaphor. Yes, some things I'm juggling are rubber balls, and those things will survive if I drop them. Other things at the very least feel like glass (though they may actually be more resilient than I give them credit for). But there's other stuff that I'm juggling, too, that I'd classify as beanbags. These things won't bounce back, but they also won't be broken by being dropped. In reality, these things don't matter, and I don't need to be juggling them in the first place. They're just adding an unnecessary element of chaos to the mix.

So how do I figure out the difference between these various priorities, obligations, and other facets of my life that I'm juggling?

Step one is to recognize the fact that I am juggling many things. This may seem silly to say, but it's amazing the things that our brains can (and will) normalize. Take today, for example. It's a Saturday, and I am on-call for my day job, so I didn't schedule any spiritual companionship client sessions today, despite the fact that the odds of me getting paged are relatively slim. So that's two balls right there—my day job, and my practicum hours. I got up earlier than I wanted to this morning because I had to make sure I had time to shower and take the dog out before a quick, casual Zoom call I had scheduled with some friends (three more balls—basic self care, taking care of the dog, connecting with friends). I've been knitting this afternoon, because I was itching to do something creative, and in the back of my mind I know I have homework to do, which I've scheduled for tomorrow but that I should maybe start on this evening because there's a fair bit of it and tomorrow's schedule has filled up quite a bit (another three balls—creative projects, homework, and planning the rest of the weekend). That's eight things right there, and I would consider this a relatively laid-back weekend day! Had I not pulled that Two of Pentacles this morning, I might not have taken the time to consider how many balls I have in the air.

Now that I'm aware that I'm juggling, I can actually look at each of the things and consider their relative importance. I can do this in a number of ways, but a couple of filters I like to use are: Does putting energy into this help me to live in alignment with my values? Does this need my energy now, or could I put it down and pick it back up later? So let's look at each of the things I mentioned juggling above and run them through these filter questions:

• My day job:
  • Does putting energy into this help me to live in alignment with my values? I've been struggling with my day job lately, for a whole host of reasons I won't get into here, but one of the big ones is that it's feeling less and less aligned to my values. It's an important thing to be aware of as I try to figure out what my next steps are.
  • Does this need my energy now, or could I put it down and pick it back up later? Aside from periodically checking in on the team that's working and staying home so I can easily hop on my computer if I get paged, I don't really need to be thinking that much about it right now.
  • Conclusion: I'm probably giving this more active energy than it calls for.
• My practicum hours:
  • Does putting energy into this help me to live in alignment with my values? Yes! Spiritual companionship work is work I find enormously fulfilling, and part of the reason I find it fulfilling is that it absolutely aligns with my values.
  • Does this need my energy now, or could I put it down and pick it back up later? I'm not seeing clients this weekend, and I'm in a pretty good spot for the start of the semester in terms of finding clients. (I could still use a few more, though, so if you or anyone you know might be interested in working with me, there's more info over here!)
  • Conclusion: Although this is important to me, I don't need to be putting focus on it today.
• Basic self care:
  • Does putting energy into this help me to live in alignment with my values? Yes—it's hard to live in alignment with my values if my basic needs aren't being met.
  • Does this need my energy now? I've been feeling run down lately, which is usually a solid sign that this could use more attention.
  • Conclusion: This should be a priority today.
• Taking care of the dog:
  • Does putting energy into this help me to live in alignment with my values? Yes! It's an honor to care for the magical being that is my dog, and caring for her contributes to my goal of making my corner of the world a gentler place.
  • Does this need my energy now? I took her out this morning; she'll need to go out again this evening and then she'll need dinner, but right now she's sleeping next to me on the couch.
  • Conclusion: I don't need to be actively worrying about this right now.
• Connecting with friends:
  • Does putting energy into this help me to live in alignment with my values? Yes! Community is a core value in my life.
  • Does this need my energy now? I am good at regularly putting time in my schedule to connect with friends. And I'm an introvert who, on the subject of self care, could really use some hermit time today.
  • Conclusion: This can wait.
• Creative projects:
  • Does putting energy into this help me to live in alignment with my values? Yes! Creativity is part of how I keep myself regulated.
  • Does this need my energy now? This is deeply tied to self care, and feels like the right thing to pursue on a day when I'm being a relative hermit.
  • Conclusion: I can give this energy until it no longer feels fun.
• Homework:
  • Does putting energy into this help me to live in alignment with my values? I'm not excited about my homework, but it is helping me to 1) get closer to finishing this degree, which is important to me, and 2) work toward a more neutral response within myself to the class topic, which has felt a little bit fraught. So I think this one is also a yes.
  • Does this need my energy now? I blocked out a substantial chunk of time on my calendar for this tomorrow. That said, it's only the second week of homework after taking all summer off, and my ADHD makes it hard for me to estimate how long something will take.
  • Conclusion: This can probably wait until tomorrow, although it wouldn't hurt to start looking at it tonight.
• Planning the rest of the weekend:
  • Does putting energy into this help me to live in alignment with my values? This is pretty values-neutral at this point.
  • Does this need my energy now? I've actually already done about all the planning I can do at this point.
  • Conclusion: I can let this go.

So, to summarize all of that, self care and creative projects feel like glass balls today. My day job, practicum hours, taking care of the dog, connecting with friends, and homework are all feeling like rubber balls. And planning the rest of the weekend, it turns out, was a beanbag.

I hope this has been a helpful look into how I try to evaluate the priorities I'm juggling these days. I'd love to hear from you, too—what are the filters you use to figure out what will bounce, what might shatter, and what you can just let go? Feel free to leave a comment and let me know!