Sharing The Message of Balance

A recent review of Juggling Elephants on Amazon highlighted the ease of sharing the strategies of the book with other people: Carole Roman writes:

Great little book about putting everything in your life into perspective. Oddly enough, I read the book last night and this morning ended up describing the methods to both my sons this morning. They were overwhelmed and complaining about all the crazy things going on, and the whole idea of changing yourself into the "ringmaster" resonated with both of them. The authors highlight the main ideas or concepts, which are all pretty much common sense, but useful to remember when we get swept up the the swirling circus of our lives. This book could be a lifeline to anyone who feels life spiraling out of control, and if they use the tools to focus, place the players to their best advantage and not get caught up in the impossible, it may find themselves sitting back and enjoying the show. Juggling Elephants is a crash course in finding your center and then strengthening it by taking command.

Thanks Carole!!!

Pick 3 Acts For Each Ring

Take a moment and look at your task list for today. Pretty overwhelming huh? In the application of the theory to write everything down, we have created lists that we actually DON'T want to look at because they are so depressing.

Try something different today. Use the big list as your master task list. Draw the 3 rings we discuss in our book, and within each ring, list 3 tasks, that if accomplished, would be of the greatest impact on accomplishing your highest priorities. That's 3 things for you at work, 3 for your relationships, and 3 for your own personal well being or "self."

Now build your day around these tasks instead of trying to check off a list of 45 things. As you accomplish the 3 for any ring, go back to that master task list and get 3 more.

You'll be amazed at the sense of accomplishment and clarity you have instead of trying to be the ringmaster of more acts than you care to count... that's called "Juggling Elephants!"

Elephants Aren't Always Negative

If you are following the dates of our blog posts, you will notice a HUGE gap between this post and the last one. We have been diligently working on the launch of Getting to It, which was released last month by Harper Business. We are thrilled with the book, and hope you find it beneficial as well. You can download the first chapter here as a pdf, or here as an Mp3.

Our journey to launch the book was quite an elephant, but it reminded us once again that our elephants, or those things weighing on our time and energy, are often not negative in nature. They are simply work or life events that come our way and require more than our normal attention.

And in keeping with our training about managing our elephants, we recognized that we couldn't keep the same number of "acts" in our lineup, so we stopped our blog for awhile. The good news is that we're back now, and looking forward to sharing our thoughts once again on time management and work/life balance.

Thanks for joining us for the circus of life. We appreciate it.

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.

The Ringmaster Who Started It All

July 5th is the birth date of P.T. Barnum. In addition to his notoriety as an American showman, businessman, scam artist and entertainer, he is best remembered for founding the circus that became the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus.

When it comes to quotes by him, most of us remember, "There's a sucker born every minute." However, like him or not, Barnum knew how to get things done and was willing to work tirelessly to make his plans (and schemes) a reality. Another quote by him reads, Whatever you do, do it with all your might. Work at it, early and late, in season and out of season, not leaving a stone unturned, and never deferring for a single hour that which can be done just as well now.

How would the effort you are putting into your work today measure up to Barnum's quote?