As a human, you play many roles in life: parent, sibling, spouse, worker, manager, etc.
Sometimes we can separate the roles. For example, from 9 to 5, I can play the role of “worker”. But there are times when those roles clash. For example, you might be working and you get the call that your child is sick. You might be at your child’s dance recital when you get an urgent call.
It is those moments that you have to juggle.
Unfortunately, as podcast guest Nikita Graves, shares, no one really tells you HOW to juggle your roles. Do you stay at work while your child is sick? Do you leave work? Do you attend the recital?
There are no easy answers and plenty of factors that impact your decisions.
That’s why this article doesn’t focus on specific solutions. It focuses on principles. When trying to juggle between y9ur roles, you need to have a set of guiding principles to default to.
Here are some tips you might consider in defining those principles:
Accept and define the situation. Any time you are caught between two decisions, your first step is to accept and define what is actually going on. When you are dealing with a stressful situation, it’s easy to focus on the overwhelm you feel and not the situation. Focus first on defining what the problem is, what your obstacles are, and your options are.
Get help Do not rely solely on yourself to conquer your day. Yes, we all have times when we can seemingly handle everything we have in our way. Those times are few and far in between, if ever. In truth, we need other humans for almost everything we do. Use that when you need it.
Reach out At the same time, you cannot rely on support if you don’t give support and create value in the first place. How do you do that? By helping others and offering advice or support. You also create value by sharing your truth. When you share your life’s journey at this moment, you create for others to share their truth with you. Such stories are powerful in creating powerful relationships among friends and strangers alike.
Go within. Take regular time to get away out of your situation, even for 5 minutes. Sometimes a situation can be so overwhelming that you need to step away from it. Even if you can’t do this physically, you can do this mentally. Close your eyes and breathe for at least a minute. (preferably 5 minutes or more). For that moment, nothing has changed. Breathe again and then return.
Do your best. Realize that no there will be times that you won’t be able to win. You will have times when you don’t make the right decision. You might miss the pivotal recital that your child always wanted you to go to. You might miss an important meeting or come late. This will happen. There will be times when you arrive late to the meeting smelling like baby powder or go to the recital in your business clothes. It’s all OK. You are doing the best. Do your best and laugh at all the other moments along the way.
Living
While it’s often easier to mentally put people in a box (“He’s a doctor” or “She’s a manager”), we cannot forget that people have many lives. They are mothers, fathers, employees, employers, and more. On top of that, they are creators, consumers, teachers, mentors, influencers, and more. The number of roles we will have to play will increase with the rise of the gig economy and technology.
For example, with a simple click, a mother can go from family driver to Uber contractor. No one sees this change, but it happens…and it happens all of the time.
As individuals, we must be aware of the clashes that can happen with this. The more roles we play, the more decisions we have to make. The more we prepare in advance, the better off we will be.