juggling between paychecks and passions

Are you juggling it all? Juggling your job and your passions without dropping either of them? And yet, somehow, you’re still keeping it all spinning, hoping none of the balls fall. It’s a strange life, regularly feeling torn between stability and what excites you. Some work from 9 to 5, some sit in endless meetings, some work for others and some work for themselves. But they all keep juggling, even if it feels like they’re running out of hands.

First things first, i couldn’t have ‘‘juggling’’ as my main title without giving a little credit to the art of the juggler. The true circus masters of the act. A dimly lit center stage surrounded by a crowded audience, a circus performer tossing either balls, torches or rings. His eyes don’t follow each tossing object, but stay centered, seeing the pattern as a whole. Elbows tucked, wrists loose, steps small but grounded. There’s something almost romantic about it, a man standing alone, trying to keep everything in the air pretending it’s all under control.

But a juggler never chases the object, he trusts it to return.

Somehow life asks the same of us, as the circus asks of the juggler. We spin multiple roles, jobs, side projects, relationships, secret lives and dreams. Except the audience isn’t clapping, they’re just waiting for us to drop something. The thing is there’s no secret formula, and honestly most of the time you do drop something. You are not a master of the circus, you are tired.

Step off the stage for a bit and look at all the roles you’re juggling. Then ask yourself, which are urgent, which are meaningful and which can wait? Adjust your objects and stop acting like they aren’t yours. Look at what you’ve been carrying out of habit or fear. Ask if it’s actually yours to manage and if it isn’t step back. Stop apologising for the things you can’t hold in the air. You’ve been treating every ball like it’s critical. Meanwhile most of them aren’t.

Once you relax your hold, you realise you’ve been exhausted for no reason. Your life, your passions, your ‘‘responsibilities’’, they don’t need constant grips.

Like a juggler, trust that the things you care about will land where they should.

Some balls can drop. You’ll survive.

Dani