Spinning plates is the game: Navigating challenges
Spinning plates is the game.
Sometimes we feel like we’ve got a lot on and it becomes a bit overwhelming. Whether that’s a lot of projects that you’re working on, implementing new processes at work, trying to get your car fixed, dealing with things with the family, trying to plan a holiday, the washing machine breaks, all kinds of stuff happens constantly.
That is life, that is the game.
Embracing Challenges
Feeling uncomfortable during these times is natural. However, a different perspective might help: we have periods with more challenges and others with fewer. Our goal is to navigate through these times effectively. We need to determine how to overcome the tasks at hand.
Creating Systems and Processes
Our objective shouldn’t be to eliminate all challenges, as there will always be something to tackle. Instead, we should embrace these challenges, learn from them, and develop systems and processes to tackle them when they arise.
Example: Car Maintenance
Take, for instance, owning your first car.
Initially, all you think about is keeping it fuelled. Then comes the first service, requiring some expenditure. Eventually, something breaks or wears out, meaning you need to spend money on repairs.
For me, nine times out of ten, when the big things go wrong and the bills are large, it’s generally at the least opportune time, compared with everything else going on in my life.
This just adds loads of stress.
So one of the things I learned to do early on was put some money aside every month for car maintenance. It’s a simple thing, but it’s just reduced the cognitive and emotional burden of unexpected expenses.
This example illustrates how creating a system can help manage challenges. You move from dealing with unknown unknowns to preparing for known unknowns. While I can’t predict what will break, I know something likely will, so I plan accordingly.
Managing Unknown Risks at Work
At work, you may face projects with unknown risks.
There is always going to be a risk of things taking longer, people or resources becoming unavailable, and scope needing to change.
So as a bare minimum, you need to be accounting for those and building some flexibility into your schedule. Whether that’s padding things out a little bit (so you can hopefully bring things forward if nothing goes wrong), or keeping the timeline tight and building in regular review points where you can discuss any possible mitigations for risks/issues that come up.
Balancing Emotion and Practicality
If you just stop and think about it for a bit (zoom out), it will help you manage the emotional overwhelm that can sometimes happen with these challenges.
Applying work principles to life, and vice versa, might feel awkward, but it’s effective.
We spend a big chunk of our lives working, so emotion, practicality and resourcefulness fall into every aspect of what we do. There’s no reason we can’t learn and develop our approach to these challenges from one context of life and use it in the other.
What’s on Your Plate?
I’ve got a lot on my plate at the moment (Growing my business, building a studio, travelling, car faff, bathroom renovations) - hence writing this post.
What’s on your plate at the moment and how are you managing it?
Do you feel overwhelmed?
Are you coping well? Or are you just cruising, being super chill?
I’m keen to hear how you approach this.
