wobbling is the art of juggling

Wobbling is the art of juggling.  Wobbling is the art of not letting any balls drop.  Wobbling is the art of life.  Oh yea, there's no such thing as work-life balance - it's one big ass bucket of LIFE.  <BTW - Picture bouncy rubber balls in your head>

So before I begin, I must give some credit for this concept to a man I worked for several years ago, John Humphrey.  I cannot confirm how or where, but I do know that I made that mental note back then and so I want to give credit.  Many people often ask me, how do you do it?  How do you do so many things?  Well.... partly because I'm slightly insane (joking), and mostly because I wobble.  I wobble my current day job as a Manager at a local boutique consulting firm, my current consulting gig at Clarisonic as their Digital Marketing Consultant,  my first startup of 2011 AllThingsWishful.com, and my most recent startup of 2011 Arry Table.  I also wobble personal commitments to my dog, Mochi, my fiance, my mother and brother, my mentees and seeing my friends.  I think living alone also piles on a bunch of commitments and chores, paying bills, cleaning, laundry, cooking, groceries, ...  Obviously, my health endeavors such as running or yoga have fallen by the wayside now.  I plan to pick that back up.... soon - I'm walking my pup in the morning in the meantime.  Right now, I'm in the midst of planning a wedding which will be happening... very shortly!  (Yes, update on that coming!)

Yep.  My current life is a bit.... nuts.

Explain the "Wobble"?  The idea behind the "Wobble" is that there is no such thing as true balance.  Corporations and companies sling "work-life balance" around thinking that it means 40-45 hour work weeks then going home to do chores, hang out with family, and sleeping 8 hours a night.  It's not 1970 anymore dudes.  Okay - understand, that if an employee is working at one job for 60-100+ hours/week - that's messed up.  If that's the case - you gotta pay that employee more, that employee is ridiculously ineffective, or you got some major resourcing issues.  I'm talking outside of that.  I'm talking about those that like a more fluid style of life and work.  Examples of people with this fluid style of life and work are the many entrepreneurs and startup small business owners, many consultants and contractors, maybe even that over-achieving high school kid who's itching to go to Harvard. 

• The art of the "Wobble" means you focus on one thing at a time, moving it forward little (or lot) at a time - without letting any of your other balls (aka projects/commitments) completely come crashing to the ground.  Sometimes, that'll mean you're hopping about even using your feet and legs to keep that ball in the air. 
  
• The art of the "Wobble" means that some of these balls are bigger or heavier than other balls and require more TLC.  A bigger ball means you're checking into it every day for instance for several hours at a time.  A smaller and lighter ball may only need to be tended to once a week or once a month.  Some balls may need several days or weeks of attention, but then after that, they are good for a period of time.
• The art of the "Wobble" also allows for human error - if any of these balls happen to drop and start to settle onto the ground, it's okay.  Acknowledge it.  Pick it back up before it runs out of "bounce" and get it moving again.  This might be a relationship for instance, ideally, no this would not happen, but it happens.  You look at your friend or spouse or brother or... and you say, "hey, we haven't hung out in awhile" - and you put in some good quality time.  Balls will drop and hit the ground - the art of Wobbling is picking that ball back up as soon as possible before its bounce is gone.

That's it.  Comment and let me know what you think.

xoxo,
Arry