Juggling

Keep all of your balls in the air. Rotate them equally. Let them touch your fingers only long enough to send them airborne again. Don't take your focus off for one moment or they will all crash disastrously to the ground.

I don't remember anyone ever telling me about this juggling program before. If they did, I chose to ignore it. Probably much like I chose to ignore those who said that writing a book was not easy. Even a bad book. Rather than heed the advice of those who went before me, I plunged. That's what I do. And I ended up with a book that readers seem to like which pleases me immensely.

But that pleasure is momentary. Life closes in...

So now I'm juggling the things we all share: the chores and errands we have because we like to live in a clean house with laundered clothes and oh yeah, eat; a family life that I've discovered I not only want but need; the finalization of the particulars of one book and then it's actual launch; the self-editing process of the second book to get it ready for beta readers who will help me get it ready for a professional edit who will land me squarely in another launch; marketing the first book and trying to get to the third book to actually write it—which is why I got into this in the first place. Then there's the business side where I need to weigh expense against potential income in a business that's in such enormous upheaval and flux that what was effective six months ago doesn't work today. And what failed last month works like magic this month.

I'm learning to juggle. I'm trying not to drop a ball. But some days I know it has to happen. The thing I'm trying to understand is that no matter how much I do there is always something more that could be done. And then let it go. Stop for the day. Refocus. Repurpose. Relax.

What about you? How do you keep all your balls in the air? Or how do you deal with one or two falling?

It's all better with friends.