Juggling Life

Last summer I asked a friend if she could teach me how to juggle.

On the first day we bought some lemons and all we did for about an hour was practice tossing one lemon from hand to hand. Getting that perfect high arch. Letting the lemon fall softly and consistently in each palm. Looking forward instead of tracking the movement with the eyes.

During our second practice, we added a second lemon. She told me to toss them consecutively, one just a split second after the other so they created crisscrossing arches in the air. This step was a bit trickier than just tossing one lemon back and forth and it took me several days to master.

Finally, I was ready to add the third lemon, to start actually juggling. But it took me a while to get the hang of it. I kept overthinking the movements. And just when I would get on a roll, one of them would drop.

But once I finally got out of my head I could just zone out and juggle.

Lately, I’ve been feeling like I’m juggling so many tasks and responsibilities. If I step back and think about it, it can be overwhelming. But the thing about juggling is, you can’t think about it. You have to just follow the muscle memory you established from hours of practice. And you won’t let any lemons drop.

The problem is so many people want to start juggling with 3 lemons straight from day one. They take on way more responsibilities than they can handle. They can’t even manage to follow a healthy sleeping schedule or make their bed in the morning. But they try to manage entire organizations.

In my experience, it really helped starting with just one lemon. One foundational project. For me, that was working out.

It was really liberating to get the hang of working out consistently and feel my body changing. Adding a second habit: eating healthy, fully balanced meals on top of that was a lot harder to stay consistent with. And to be honest food is something I still struggle with.

Then I tried to add reading to that list and failed pretty miserably. But I tried again. I kept going back to one lemon and making sure I held onto that foundation. Then, eventually, eating healthy became easier and so did reading every day.

Once you’ve got the hang of three it’s not that much harder to add four or five, or even try different juggling patterns.

But first you have to master one and two.