Something inspirational:
“Imagine life is a game in which you are juggling five balls. The balls are called work, family, health, friends, and integrity. And you're keeping all of them in the air. But one day you finally come to understand that work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back. The other four balls... are made of glass. If you drop one of these, it will be irrevocably scuffed, nicked, perhaps even shattered.”
JAMES PATTERSON, Suzanne’s Diary for Nicholas
Very good analysis of life. It's so true. I always put my family before my work.
I've worked with people that put work before family and other aspects of life. They succeeded in what they did but didn't have much of a life outside of work. We must take care of the other things in life before work.
Work is mostly there and will be. Your family, health etc isn't.
I think you're right Lisa. We're more in a work culture than we have ever been although there are some people who have no choice but to work.
There are also different values in society today and I think those values tend to interfere with people's attitude. I think the basic values from our grandparents are the values that really worked.
Family and health aren't always on the top of our priority list.
I've never been good at juggling so I guess I would be in trouble!
I've spent most of my life trying to do this with the obvious results. Now I'm trying to learn how to do it so that I'm not dropping any balls.
It would be great if there weren't always extra balls being thrown into the mix!
Thanks Randy. Juggling work, family our health. It's all part of what I would call life. Some things are easier, some are more difficult, but we get to learn what works.
So true. I also feel that as we get older our skill is to recognise which balls to juggle and which to drop!
We tend to learn through experiences, both good and bad, although I have to say some of us don't learn at all, we just muddle through the best we feel we can.
I find it challenging, a bit difficult to balance all five balls and give each category the attention it demands, but integrity helps us to stabilize and balance the game of life, it helps us juggle the balls of responsibilities.
Perhaps all five balls can be shattered if our integrity is compromised.
Thanks for your honesty Tim. There is no getting away from the fact that life is difficult. Having to work round family, friends, health, work and keep our integrity in tact can be virtually impossible.
We get to call the shots on all of it, but at times others may not agree and that's where things may become difficult. If people were more tolerant of each other, there would be more understanding. If there were more understanding all five balls would be in tact, because we would manage better.
As for our integrity, we are our integrity. Without our integrity, as individuals we will be compromised.