We all have to deal and cope with competing priorities in our professional and personal lives. Sometimes this makes it difficult to hold focus on our goals. Moreover it’s easy to feel you are the only one doing it hard sometimes. The reality is life sometimes is hard and comprises sacrifices are required to achieve our goals. But if our goals are highly attractive we have a better chance of overcoming the obstacles and curve balls that life throws up.
Your outlook and approach in juggling life’s complexities can make all the difference in how you reach your goal. Here is one person’s approach.*
12 noon, I looked at myself in the mirror for the first time since I left home that day and there it was, a half-chewed, was soggy, now air dried Cruskit the size of a fifty-cent coin on my shoulder. Yes a Cruskit, complete with the tiny teeth marks left by my pre-schooler. I had been at work since 8am so the snack had been travelling on my shoulder for the duration of the morning, on public transport and through a number of professional exchanges. Ordinarily, I would have been slightly amused and only ever so slightly embarrassed. BUT I had just spent the past two hours pitching for work in a serious suit, at a serious meeting, with a serious bank.
I said a few choice words to the Cruskit while removing it.
I love being a parent, I love working and I truly believe biscuits and Hugo Boss can coexist in my world, just not on my shoulder, at the same time. As anyone with competing priorities would attest, juggling is hard work and it is not always possible to keep all the balls in the air, let alone smile while doing it. But I do think it is possible to take an approach that helps you maintain mental health while dealing with multiple challenges, an approach that keeps things in perspective, whatever your specific context might be.
work is not separate from life, it is part of life so work solutions can also be life solutions
This is not a blog about “identity” or “work-life balance” they are whole other topics. Neither is this about “having it all”, unpacking that myth takes more than 600 words. This blog is sharing a simple mental approach I recently learnt from a wise colleague – I have embraced it for juggling as well dealing with other challenges.
My colleague and I were having a conversation about juggling and the inherent tensions that come with it when he said, “I have watched a lot of people go through this and it is hard, there is no formula, no short cuts, no easy solution for anyone, all you can do is manage it till you get to the other side.”
I have encountered empathy, sympathy, well-meaning advice, condescension and judgement while speaking about juggling, but no one had ever put it in such a simple and accessible way to me. At first I loved the thought, just manage. The elegant practicality of it appealed to the consultant in me. We provide HR consulting to our clients all the time: take a problem, view it from different angles, set the strategy and deliver a solution, all in the context of our clients’ business goals – it is a tried and tested formula. There are no instant fixes and even the smartest solutions need management, but we begin with the fundamental belief that it is all manageable. Then I baulked at thought of “managing “my life; this is my life, I reacted, I don’t want to just manage it, I want to thrive in my life. And then I thought about it some more, spoke to a few more wise people and this is what I have.
I started with the premise that work is not separate from life, it is part of life so work solutions can also be life solutions:
1. Thriving doesn’t mean easy, thriving means growing and developing in life
2. Growing and developing is not always easy, it can be HARD, but whatever it is can be managed
3. Manage the challenge, manage the situation, manage the day, there is no easy solution – one size does not fit all – but I don’t have to solve the problem for eternity, I just have to manage it for the context I am in.
So I manage the juggle. Some days I am clearly the rock star in my own universe and others I wish I pulled the doona over my head, but I manage.
Back to the cruskit, it must have been a lucky biscuit because we won the pitch.
*Kylie Huang is a senior consultant at deliberatepractice. Kylie’s experience with the Cruskit is just one example of juggling the demands of the new work-life paradigm and how a realistic outlook and approach helps her remain focussed on her goals.