So much is happening in my life right now. My new book, Create a World That Works, just came out. Requests are coming in for keynote lectures and presentations. Today someone offered to personally give copies of the book to 100 members of a global leadership council. My partner has accepted a new job in Boston, so that means we will be moving in the next few months. Which means our house is for sale and we are looking for a new home in the Boston area. Which means packing boxes and cleaning out and letting go. Things are moving fast on so many levels, and it’s easy to get lost in it all. It starts to feel like I’m a pretty good juggler who is doing his best to keep two or three more balls in the air than he is used to. It’s intense. And you have no doubt experienced a similar kind of thing at some point in your own life. It’s not uncommon among those who are committed to making a difference in the world.
So how to handle it? There is the question that we all ask. And I just keep coming back to what I write about and teach all the time. In other words, coming back to what I know and making sure that I live by what I know. What that really means is closing the gap between what I know and how I live.
I know a lot. You know a lot. Anyone reading this blog has no doubt done a lot of work around personal awareness and has a pretty good sense of who they are and how they navigate the world. Yet we can all get caught up in just trying to keep the balls in the air and forget what those balls really represent.
In my case, the balls represent an expansion of this work that flows through me–an expansion of the ways in which I am called to bring this work to the world–an expansion of me! There is a realization that these particular balls just happen to be the ones that are in the air right now. But as soon as one of the balls comes down because that particular thing is now “complete,” another ball or three or four will replace it.
Many of us are committed to living who we are called to be in the world and to carry the messages that come through us. And as we live into those commitments, more doors open, more opportunities arise, more invitations come, and our work and lives continue to take on more layers–more balls come into play. The work takes on a life of its own and we are just doing our best to keep up.
So what’s the gap for me right now? I’m actually discovering it as I write this post. The gap is my lack of belief and trust that the balls I am trying so hard to keep in the air are all going to stay in the air whether or not I am juggling! All of those pieces are in motion, they all have lives of their own, and as long as I stay present with them and follow “what wants to happen” with each of them, they will stay in the air on their own. They will tell me what my next steps need to be. There is nothing for me to figure out, and I certainly don’t need to keep juggling them. Each of them is doing its own thing, and might even do it better if I stop trying so hard!
Wow, what a relief! I can so easily get caught in thinking that my job is to keep the balls in the air. But now I realize that, in truth, my job is to stay present and respond to what the balls are asking me for. It’s as simple as that.
