Juggling Elephants Blog

Focus. Our lives are full of distractions. There are so many opportunities and so many demands on our time. Typically it isn't a matter of not having anything to do but of making the decision of WHAT to do.

Organizations create mission and value statements, tag lines, buttons and badges with a few key thoughts or concepts of what is important and what they want employees to focus on: "Customer First", "DIRTFT" (Do IT Right The First Time), "Save Money," "Clean, Fast and Friendly," "Safety Now" to name a few. When decisions need to be made or some action needs to be taken the organization typically measures the potential response to the organization's focus. Thomas J. Peters & Robert H. Waterman, Jr have said, Excellent companies focus on only a few key business values…. The focus on a few key values lets everyone know what’s important.

Apply this strategy to your life. Do you have a personal mission statement that you measure against your focus? Does the mission statement include each of the 3-rings of your circus? Are you measuring your daily activities and focus against that mission statement? What if we change the Peters/Waterman quote to say, "Excellent individuals focus on only a few key values…The focus of a few key values lets everyone know what’s important". Maybe we need to go as far as creating a button or a badge to remind us: "Super Dad!", "Results Driven", "I Choose to Be Happy", "Physically Fit", "Friend." What would your button say?

Labels: focus, purpose

In Juggling Elephants one of the suggestions we offer for maintaining productivity is taking an "intermission." A time when you step back from normal activity, reflect and refocus on your "next half."

If you are struggling with a place to "get away from it all," we have a humorous suggestion for you. Tristan da Cunha. Consider these facts about this remote island:

• A mail ship stops once a year at the island
• There are only about 270 inhabitants on the island
• The island covers about 30 square miles
• Five other islands in the area are not even inhabited

Talk about a place to rest and relax! Read more about this interesting spot at http://adventure.howstuffworks.com/most-remote-place.htm

Labels: humor, interruptions

While many people are comfortable posting pictures, comments and taking strange quizzes (i.e. Which member of the Addams Family do you look most like?) on social networking sites, few are comfortable leveraging these sites for job searches and employment.

The Yahoo article, Social Networking Basics for Job Hunters, offers some good initial ideas to get you started.

Labels: jobs, technology

We came across this thought just the other day:

"How thin can you spread yourself before you are no longer there?"

-Author Unknown

In reality, when you spread yourself too thin, you ARE no longer there. You are typically not available to others at a moment's notice. It is difficult to add random acts of kindness or charity to your routine. Events that are important but not urgent don't get added to your lineup. Things start to fall through the cracks.

Once again, you can't juggle elephants. Make a conscious effort to focus on what matters most. Leave some time for yourself, for those that are important to you and for those events that bring fulfillment to your life.

Labels: family, priorities, productivity, time management

I came across this quote during my "self ring time" the other day. It's from Helen Keller:
The best-educated human being is the one who understands most about the life in which he is placed.

I put a Juggling Elephants spin on it so that it reads, "The best-educated Ringmaster is the one who understands most about the circus in which he is placed." So often after someone reads Juggling Elephants or participates in one of our training programs they comment that "This was so much more than what I expected. I thought the program was just about time management or work-life balance, but I found myself looking deeper into all aspects of my work and life."

We believe that long term professional and personal improvement can only come when people take a comprehensive evaluation of all areas of their life-and then determine strategies to improve. That' not a one-time process. To best understand our situations, we must take regular, planned examinations of ourselves. The question to ask yourself today might be, "How much do I understand about my current life situation?" And if the answers aren't quickly forthcoming, it's time to do some digging.

Labels: improvement, intermission, Reflection, success

Working hard is a key element of success. We see this in sports with athletes but also in the business world. Hamilton Holt said, Nothing worthwhile comes easily. Half effort does not produce half results. It produces no results. Work, continuous work and hard work, is the only way to accomplish results that last.

But what about working "Smart?" As we say in Juggling Elephants, there are no shortages of acts that can be put in our circus. It is easy to fill our day with "stuff" and feel like we were busy all day-but were we productive? Are we being smart about the acts that we are focusing on and how we are executing on those acts?

For example, a salesperson can spend all day plowing through phone numbers and making calls. They read the script and try to make the sale. But, pretty soon it can become canned and very routine for the salesperson and for the person on the other end of the phone. What if they stopped to research a little about the company they are calling? What if they tailored the call to the person they are selling to? What if they asked more questions? They might not be able to make as many calls but they will probably have better quality conversations which ultimately close more sales.

Quality acts versus quantity of acts. That is the ticket! Work hard and work smart.

Labels: productivity, time management, work/life balance

While checking out some morning headlines I saw a Yahoo article entitled, How to lose 3 million in 6 years. Out of curiosity I read the article and had to laugh. While it highlighted one young lady's fall from riches to almost rags, the article mentioned a larger issue: Why so many lottery winners often wish they had never even played in the first place. They squander such a "rich" opportunity and feel huge remorse that they didn't spend the money more wisely.

In some ways I'd like to have their initial monetary excess for just a few moments, but their plight is similar to many of us. We are given a full day, week or other period of time to accomplish what is most important, but often squander it on less than critical tasks. We allow our choices to be made based on convenience, laziness or the emotion of the moment. And like those lottery winners (now losers) we feel bad that we didn't spend our time and energy more wisely.

The answer for us-like them-is to act with purpose. Making wise investments of our time and energy based on purpose "pays off" in dividends of satisfaction, peace and confidence that we have done the right thing. I bet lots of those lottery winners would like a piece of that kind of action.

Labels: choices, finances, purpose