Juggling Glass Balls? Six Steps to Ensure They Don’t Break
You know when you have so many to-do's and want-to-do's, that it feels like you're juggling glass balls and hoping you don't drop one? Or, you feel stuck and have no idea where to focus your energy? Getting stuck and overwhelmed is a signal you need to listen to your intuition so you can move forward.
How do you prioritize when every glass ball is a priority?
You may think, "But everything is essential!" Is it? How many of those priorities are shoulds you're making up in your head? I know the truth hurts sometimes. Experiment with the following technique to prioritize using your inner intuitive guidance with a sprinkle of structure and logic.
Six Steps to Prioritize
List all your day-to-day "life" priorities, such as feeding/walking pets, shuttling kids, recurring activities, volunteer activities you're already committed to, workouts, cooking/eating, sleep, etc.
Put all those on your calendar in blocks. Include travel time.
Now, block out your work hours.
Next, look at the available white space on your calendar. Is there any? If your calendar is entirely blocked out at this point, notice how you feel when looking at it. Are you calm, anxious, excited, or overwhelmed?
If you're feeling calm, excited, or neutral, congratulations, your work is done here! If you're feeling something else, move on to step 6.
Evaluate your calendar. Looking at each activity, ask yourself three intuitive questions:
Is this essential for my well-being? (sleep, workouts, quiet time to yourself, etc.)
If it isn't essential for my well-being, if you have sacral authority: do I immediately get a yes or no when thinking about this activity? or, if you don’t have sacral authority: do I feel heavy or light, does it seem flat vs. bright?
Does this activity help me in the long run? Examples are taking a class to help with your professional work or creative passion. Sometimes, you need to take on more in the short term, but ultimately, it should benefit you, even if it's causing short-term stress.
If you're participating in an activity just because you think you should cut it out. Be brutal here, and stick to activities you find fulfilling. I spent two years in leadership positions on a PTA because I felt I should be involved in my kids' school. Every time we had a meeting, I’d dread going to them. Not because there were issues within the PTA or anything having to do with planning activities,, it simply wasn’t in alignment with my energy and wasn’t something that would help me or my family in the long run. Instead, it caused a whole lot of stress and contributed to burnout.
Try out these steps and pay attention to your Human Design Authority (find it on your chart) when working through your priorities. Let me know how it goes!