364. How To Be Awesome At Not Dropping The Wrong Ball
This is a concept that I particularly needed to hear at this moment in my life so I thought you might too.
We are all juggling a hundred things at once. We have many balls in the air at all times. But not all of those things are equally important.
Some balls are made of rubber. Some are made of glass.
Some will bounce and some will break.
I don’t think the goal is to keep every ball in the air at all times.
It’s knowing which ones you absolutely cannot afford to drop.
It’s so easy to end up spending our energy on things that feel urgent instead of things that are actually important.
We get so caught up trying to do everything that we sometimes lose sight of the few things that matter most.
So today, we’re going to talk about how to recognize the difference.
How to prioritize what really matters, how to let go of the things that don’t, and how to build a life where we’re not just keeping a hundred balls in the air, but making sure we’re protecting the right ones.
I’m someone who is constantly thinking about how to be more intentional with my time. I journal every morning, and I prioritize my day the night before because I don’t want to just wake up and let the day happen to me.
I want to decide what matters most and make sure those things actually get done.
And I think part of the reason I’m so intentional about this is because I have a real fear of dropping an important ball. Of missing something that actually matters because I was so busy focusing on something that, at the end of the day, would have bounced right back anyway.
And I think so many of us do this without even realizing it.
**LINK to 2.0 system that Lindsay created** (that she references in this episode)
https://howtobeawesomeateverything.com/pages/2-0weeklyhabitsandplanningsystem
**We’re All Juggling More Than We Realize
Between our kids, marriages, friendships, businesses, health, homes, and personal goals, we’re constantly juggling responsibilities.
Every role comes with expectations, decisions, and demands on our time.
When everything competes for our attention, it’s easy to treat everything as equally important.
Just because something demands your attention doesn’t mean it deserves your attention right now.
Being busy isn’t the same thing as being effective.
You can accomplish 25 things in a day and still miss the one thing that actually mattered.
**Rubber Balls vs. Glass Balls
Rubber balls are things that can bounce back:
Laundry and dishes
A messy house
An unanswered text
A nonessential errand
A social media post that didn’t get published
A task that can wait until tomorrow
Glass balls are things that can have lasting consequences if neglected:
Your child’s trust and emotional well-being
Your family’s safety
Your physical and mental health
Your marriage and important relationships
Meaningful moments and experiences
Critical financial responsibilities
Important, time-sensitive opportunities
The mistake is giving rubber balls the same level of urgency as glass balls.
The goal isn’t to never drop a ball. The goal is to never sacrifice a glass ball to save a rubber one.
**The Most Important Things Don’t Always Feel Urgent
Laundry is visible. Emails have notifications. Your phone is constantly buzzing.
But your child needing connection might not come with a notification.
Your marriage needing attention might not feel like an emergency.
Your health might not demand attention until something goes wrong.
Sometimes the most important things in our lives are the quietest.
We have to be intentional enough to recognize them.
Some of the most important moments in your life will look completely ordinary while they’re happening.
**Urgent and Important Are Not the Same Thing
Something can feel urgent without being important.
Something can be incredibly important without feeling urgent.
The loudest thing in your life isn’t necessarily the most valuable.
A full calendar doesn’t automatically mean a fulfilling life.
Examples:
Answering 30 emails vs. having an important conversation with your spouse.
Cleaning the house vs. attending your child’s game.
Scrolling on your phone vs. getting enough sleep.
Running unnecessary errands vs. prioritizing exercise.
Perfecting a social media post vs. following through on a major business opportunity.
Ask yourself: If I don’t do this today, what actually happens?
If the answer is “not much,” it might be a rubber ball.
**Intentional Planning Protects the Important Things
Don’t wake up and let your day happen to you.
Prioritize your day the night before.
Identify the most important things that need to happen.
Journal in the morning to reconnect with your goals, values, and priorities.
Make sure your schedule reflects what matters most, not just what’s demanding your attention.
Build systems that help you follow through.
Create space for the unexpected moments that actually matter.
I don’t want to be incredibly productive at things that don’t actually matter.
**Sometimes Being Awesome Means Intentionally Letting Something Drop
We celebrate people who seem to do it all, but doing everything isn’t necessarily winning.
Sometimes the smartest decision is choosing what you’re NOT going to do.
Let the house be messy so you can make memories.
Say no to a social obligation when your family needs downtime.
Postpone a task when your body needs rest.
Stop feeling obligated to respond immediately to every message.
Delegate, simplify, or eliminate responsibilities that don’t require your personal attention.
Release the guilt that comes with not doing everything.
You’re not neglecting your priorities when you intentionally let a rubber ball drop. You’re protecting them.
**Don’t Make Everything a Glass Ball
If everything feels critically important, you’ll live in a constant state of stress.
Perfectionism can make rubber balls feel like glass.
Not every missed opportunity is life-changing.
Not every parenting mistake has lasting consequences.
Not every bad day at work is a disaster.
Not every missed workout destroys your health.
Sometimes the glass ball isn’t one specific moment. It’s the pattern you’re creating over time.
One missed workout is rubber. Neglecting your health for years can become glass.
One distracted conversation with your child is rubber. A long-term pattern of emotional unavailability can become glass.
One missed date night is rubber. Consistently neglecting your marriage can become glass.
And even glass balls aren’t always permanently broken. Trust can be rebuilt, relationships can heal, and mistakes can be repaired.
**Protect the Glass Balls Before Life Gets Busy
Don’t wait until you’re exhausted to prioritize sleep.
Don’t wait until your marriage is struggling to prioritize connection.
Don’t wait until your child is having a hard time to build trust.
Don’t wait until you’re burned out to create boundaries.
Don’t wait until the end of the year to realize you never made time for meaningful experiences.
Put the glass balls on your calendar first.
Schedule exercise and prioritize your health.
Create one-on-one time with your kids.
Protect focused work time for important goals.
Plan meaningful family experiences.
Make intentional time for your spouse.
Leave margin in your schedule for unexpected needs.
Ask for help and build systems that allow you to focus on what matters most.
Your calendar should reflect your values, not just your responsibilities.
**The Power of Saying No
Every yes to something unimportant takes time away from something else.
Protecting your glass balls sometimes means disappointing people.
Not everything deserves a place on your calendar.
You don’t have to personally handle every responsibility.
Delegating isn’t failing. It’s making room for what matters.
Having the confidence to let things go creates freedom.
**Your Glass Balls Can Change With Different Seasons of Life
Different seasons require different priorities.
Raising young children, building a business, navigating a family challenge, or caring for someone you love can change what needs your attention.
Something that was a glass ball last year might be rubber today.
Regularly reevaluate what matters most.
Don’t let old priorities dictate how you spend your time in a new season.
**Think About the Long Game
Imagine looking back on your life 20 years from now.
Which things would you regret neglecting?
Which things stressing you out today would you barely remember?
Are you giving your best energy to the things you’ll care about most later?
Are you building a life that looks successful on paper or one that actually feels meaningful?
Being intentional means making today’s decisions with your bigger life in mind.
**The Ball Audit: Five Questions to Ask Yourself
What are the three most important glass balls in my life right now?
Which rubber balls am I giving way too much energy to?
Is there a glass ball I’ve been unintentionally neglecting?
What can I delegate, postpone, simplify, or eliminate?
What’s one change I can make tomorrow to better protect what matters?
The challenge: Before going to bed tonight, identify your three biggest priorities for tomorrow. Make sure at least one protects something that truly matters to you.
You will always have more things competing for your attention than you can realistically do.
The goal isn’t to become better at doing everything.
The goal is to become better at recognizing what matters.
Stop measuring your days only by how much you accomplish.
Start measuring them by whether you gave your time and energy to the right things.
Give yourself permission to let the rubber balls bounce.
Protect the people, relationships, health, experiences, and opportunities that matter most.
You don’t need to juggle better. You need to decide which balls are worth catching.
Let the rubber balls fall. Just don’t get so busy trying to catch them that you drop the glass ones.
We are all juggling a hundred things at once. We have many balls in the air at all times. But not all of those things are equally important.
Some balls are made of rubber. Some are made of glass.
Some will bounce and some will break.
I don’t think the goal is to keep every ball in the air at all times.
It’s knowing which ones you absolutely cannot afford to drop.
It’s so easy to end up spending our energy on things that feel urgent instead of things that are actually important.
We get so caught up trying to do everything that we sometimes lose sight of the few things that matter most.
So today, we’re going to talk about how to recognize the difference.
How to prioritize what really matters, how to let go of the things that don’t, and how to build a life where we’re not just keeping a hundred balls in the air, but making sure we’re protecting the right ones.
I’m someone who is constantly thinking about how to be more intentional with my time. I journal every morning, and I prioritize my day the night before because I don’t want to just wake up and let the day happen to me.
I want to decide what matters most and make sure those things actually get done.
And I think part of the reason I’m so intentional about this is because I have a real fear of dropping an important ball. Of missing something that actually matters because I was so busy focusing on something that, at the end of the day, would have bounced right back anyway.
And I think so many of us do this without even realizing it.
**LINK to 2.0 system that Lindsay created** (that she references in this episode)
https://howtobeawesomeateveryt
**We’re All Juggling More Than We Realize
Between our kids, marriages, friendships, businesses, health, homes, and personal goals, we’re constantly juggling responsibilities.
Every role comes with expectations, decisions, and demands on our time.
When everything competes for our attention, it’s easy to treat everything as equally important.
Just because something demands your attention doesn’t mean it deserves your attention right now.
Being busy isn’t the same thing as being effective.
You can accomplish 25 things in a day and still miss the one thing that actually mattered.
**Rubber Balls vs. Glass Balls
Rubber balls are things that can bounce back:
Laundry and dishes
A messy house
An unanswered text
A nonessential errand
A social media post that didn’t get published
A task that can wait until tomorrow
Glass balls are things that can have lasting consequences if neglected:
Your child’s trust and emotional well-being
Your family’s safety
Your physical and mental health
Your marriage and important relationships
Meaningful moments and experiences
Critical financial responsibilities
Important, time-sensitive opportunities
The mistake is giving rubber balls the same level of urgency as glass balls.
The goal isn’t to never drop a ball. The goal is to never sacrifice a glass ball to save a rubber one.
**The Most Important Things Don’t Always Feel Urgent
Laundry is visible. Emails have notifications. Your phone is constantly buzzing.
But your child needing connection might not come with a notification.
Your marriage needing attention might not feel like an emergency.
Your health might not demand attention until something goes wrong.
Sometimes the most important things in our lives are the quietest.
We have to be intentional enough to recognize them.
Some of the most important moments in your life will look completely ordinary while they’re happening.
**Urgent and Important Are Not the Same Thing
Something can feel urgent without being important.
Something can be incredibly important without feeling urgent.
The loudest thing in your life isn’t necessarily the most valuable.
A full calendar doesn’t automatically mean a fulfilling life.
Examples:
Answering 30 emails vs. having an important conversation with your spouse.
Cleaning the house vs. attending your child’s game.
Scrolling on your phone vs. getting enough sleep.
Running unnecessary errands vs. prioritizing exercise.
Perfecting a social media post vs. following through on a major business opportunity.
Ask yourself: If I don’t do this today, what actually happens?
If the answer is “not much,” it might be a rubber ball.
**Intentional Planning Protects the Important Things
Don’t wake up and let your day happen to you.
Prioritize your day the night before.
Identify the most important things that need to happen.
Journal in the morning to reconnect with your goals, values, and priorities.
Make sure your schedule reflects what matters most, not just what’s demanding your attention.
Build systems that help you follow through.
Create space for the unexpected moments that actually matter.
I don’t want to be incredibly productive at things that don’t actually matter.
**Sometimes Being Awesome Means Intentionally Letting Something Drop
We celebrate people who seem to do it all, but doing everything isn’t necessarily winning.
Sometimes the smartest decision is choosing what you’re NOT going to do.
Let the house be messy so you can make memories.
Say no to a social obligation when your family needs downtime.
Postpone a task when your body needs rest.
Stop feeling obligated to respond immediately to every message.
Delegate, simplify, or eliminate responsibilities that don’t require your personal attention.
Release the guilt that comes with not doing everything.
You’re not neglecting your priorities when you intentionally let a rubber ball drop. You’re protecting them.
**Don’t Make Everything a Glass Ball
If everything feels critically important, you’ll live in a constant state of stress.
Perfectionism can make rubber balls feel like glass.
Not every missed opportunity is life-changing.
Not every parenting mistake has lasting consequences.
Not every bad day at work is a disaster.
Not every missed workout destroys your health.
Sometimes the glass ball isn’t one specific moment. It’s the pattern you’re creating over time.
One missed workout is rubber. Neglecting your health for years can become glass.
One distracted conversation with your child is rubber. A long-term pattern of emotional unavailability can become glass.
One missed date night is rubber. Consistently neglecting your marriage can become glass.
And even glass balls aren’t always permanently broken. Trust can be rebuilt, relationships can heal, and mistakes can be repaired.
**Protect the Glass Balls Before Life Gets Busy
Don’t wait until you’re exhausted to prioritize sleep.
Don’t wait until your marriage is struggling to prioritize connection.
Don’t wait until your child is having a hard time to build trust.
Don’t wait until you’re burned out to create boundaries.
Don’t wait until the end of the year to realize you never made time for meaningful experiences.
Put the glass balls on your calendar first.
Schedule exercise and prioritize your health.
Create one-on-one time with your kids.
Protect focused work time for important goals.
Plan meaningful family experiences.
Make intentional time for your spouse.
Leave margin in your schedule for unexpected needs.
Ask for help and build systems that allow you to focus on what matters most.
Your calendar should reflect your values, not just your responsibilities.
**The Power of Saying No
Every yes to something unimportant takes time away from something else.
Protecting your glass balls sometimes means disappointing people.
Not everything deserves a place on your calendar.
You don’t have to personally handle every responsibility.
Delegating isn’t failing. It’s making room for what matters.
Having the confidence to let things go creates freedom.
**Your Glass Balls Can Change With Different Seasons of Life
Different seasons require different priorities.
Raising young children, building a business, navigating a family challenge, or caring for someone you love can change what needs your attention.
Something that was a glass ball last year might be rubber today.
Regularly reevaluate what matters most.
Don’t let old priorities dictate how you spend your time in a new season.
**Think About the Long Game
Imagine looking back on your life 20 years from now.
Which things would you regret neglecting?
Which things stressing you out today would you barely remember?
Are you giving your best energy to the things you’ll care about most later?
Are you building a life that looks successful on paper or one that actually feels meaningful?
Being intentional means making today’s decisions with your bigger life in mind.
**The Ball Audit: Five Questions to Ask Yourself
What are the three most important glass balls in my life right now?
Which rubber balls am I giving way too much energy to?
Is there a glass ball I’ve been unintentionally neglecting?
What can I delegate, postpone, simplify, or eliminate?
What’s one change I can make tomorrow to better protect what matters?
The challenge: Before going to bed tonight, identify your three biggest priorities for tomorrow. Make sure at least one protects something that truly matters to you.
You will always have more things competing for your attention than you can realistically do.
The goal isn’t to become better at doing everything.
The goal is to become better at recognizing what matters.
Stop measuring your days only by how much you accomplish.
Start measuring them by whether you gave your time and energy to the right things.
Give yourself permission to let the rubber balls bounce.
Protect the people, relationships, health, experiences, and opportunities that matter most.
You don’t need to juggle better. You need to decide which balls are worth catching.
Let the rubber balls fall. Just don’t get so busy trying to catch them that you drop the glass ones.