For those who haven’t heard the phrase “keep the plates spinning”, it refers to a circus trick involving about a dozen spinning plates on the end of poles (see photo to the right).  The performer has to keep all the plates spinning because if any one of the plates slows down too much, it’s going to fall off the pole and smash into pieces on the floor.  It’s fun to watch.  The performer is constantly evaluating which plates are OK and which are trending towards disaster, and they’re making second-to-second judgments about how best to keep all the plates spinning together.

Sound familiar?  Replace “performer” with your name and replace “plates” with responsibilities like work, family, or personal health.  We’re just like those circus performers, running between our various responsibilities and commitments to keep them spinning just enough so they don’t fall off the sticks.  Focus too long on one plate, no matter how important it seems, and you’ll find that the others will crash to the floor.  Try and keep them all spinning at the same high velocity and you’ll almost certainly collapse out of exhaustion – it’s not sustainable. 

While focus is about choosing a few things and doing them well, it’s rarely about choosing just one thing and doing that one thing well.  That’s impossible to do – I can be a good father, but if I fail miserably to earn a paycheck, my daughter doesn’t eat.  I can be great in the office, but if i don’t take care of myself physically and emotionally, I won’t have the energy to keep it up for very long (and while my daughter will eat, she wouldn’t know me from Stanley).  We have to be multifaceted to some degree in our day-to-day approach.

So what do you do if you want to keep the plates spinning at various speeds consistently?

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