The other day I noticed a man loading a large bunch of balloons into the back of his vehicle. As I watched, he would push in a couple balloons on one side and several would pop out on the other. I thought, “goodness that is what life is like when we have too many projects going on at once. As we get one thing, or balloon under control, two or three pop out the other side. Then we get preoccupied with getting those balloons back in the car, and the others pop back out! No wonder we get frustrated, and feel crazy!” Some of us say, “I am so busy!”, as euphemism for “I chose to not manage my life and be responsible for the choices that I make.”
We know that mastery comes at a price of sacrificing some of those projects. The sacrifice of that which is of less important, or of that which I am less passionate about for the things that matter the most to us. This sacrifice seems like it should be easy but often it means people will be upset with us, and our desire to people please wins out over our desire to do the things in life that we are most passionate about. We can choose to be a jack of all trades, and a master of none, or we can have a passion or passions that we desire to master. If our choice is the latter, then the first steps to mastery is to simplify and put in order our life.
What are you passionate about? Are you living your priorities? Where can you simplify your life? Where can you create more order in your life?