Which Elephant Are You Willing To Drop?

If you're overwhelmed because you're facing too much to do, ask yourself this simple question: "Which elephant are you willing to drop?" Some of the elephants you are juggling are elephants because of perfectionist tendencies, negative peer pressure from others, or even a lack of clarity about your purpose. And the only thing that might be hurt if the elephant IS dropped might be your pride or your facade that you can get it all done.

This doesn't mean you don't have legitimate stress, overloaded schedules, and the need to better manage your time. But if the elephant has been inflated by your denial of reality or the facts, it might be best to just let it drop... and not pick up one like it next time.

Six Ways To Recognize You Are Juggling Elephants

Unfortunately, most of us don't say, "Wow, I am juggling elephants" until after we have already made some physical, mental or financial mistake. But what if you recognized the early symptoms of the "juggling elephants routine" before they led you astray? Here are some subtle indicators you might need to take an intermission-or at least be more discerning about the additional elephants you try to juggle:

• You haven't taken a moment today to reflect on what you HAVE gotten done
• You hesitate to open emails from certain individuals because you are afraid that a new assignment or task lurks in the words
• You look ahead 30 days and can not see a time when the intensity of your work ring will diminish
• Time at home is not enjoyable because you can't stop thinking about work-or something you are neglecting related to your own personal needs
• You begin reasoning that working hard won't make a difference because you will still have an overwhelming number of tasks awaiting you tomorrow
• Excuses about not meeting deadlines are becoming more frequent

While this list is general, developing one specific to your situation is critical if you don't want to be squashed by the elephants you ignored a few days, weeks or months ago.

How Would You Like Your Elephants?

In recent weeks there has been much debate about an article entitled, "Why Women Still Can't Have It All." One interesting blog post at the WSJ looks at the article a little differently.

Basically, they suggest that the choice is having it all or having enough, which in Juggling Elephants terms means, do you want the elephants super-sized or regular size? Regardless of ambition, goals or purpose, everyone has elephants-those tasks, issues, goals or even dreams that weigh on you physically, mentally, emotionally or physically. And they will keep coming throughout your life in both work and your personal endeavors.

We do have to decide how big of an elephant we are willing to try and juggle-and what the consequences are of juggling one elephant over another.

Spreading The Message

Errin Baugh has a blog series entitled, "Inspiring You Forward." She recently wrote a post about Juggling Elephants. You can read it by clicking here. Thanks, Errin for sharing the message with others!

The Mental Weight Is What Squashes Us

In a pre-program conference call with a client, we received some initial resistance to our training because they thought we would be telling people you can't get everything done (which, of course you can't). Their concern was that people would adopt that mentality and start "slacking off." We had a good laugh on that one.

The reality is that most of our stress comes from the mentality that we can get it all done. Our minds are constantly racing with all that could be undertaken, thereby reducing our productivity on what COULD be done. We don't plan well because we reason that there will be time to get everything done. We hold on to tasks that should be delegated because we envision unlimited resources of time. And we sacrifice the urgent for the important because we falsely believe that there will be time for the important later.

If you are weighed down by the thoughts of all you have and want to do-you're juggling elephants. Try applying the circus metaphor to your situation. Be the ringmaster of your circus, create the right lineup and work with those performers more effectively. You might even find you are getting more standing ovations from the most important person in your audience-yourself!