I spent a fair amount of time juggling in high school and college. Not metaphorically, but literally. I can toss three balls, clubs, torches, whatever up in the air. On a good day, I can do five balls for a few seconds, but I’ve never quite managed to get very far with higher numbers. I was never very good at math.
Juggling has always been a great tool in my arsenal during job interviews.
“How are you at handling multiple tasks?”
“Well, if there’s one thing I’ve learned from juggling it’s that you never actually have to do three things at once. Rather, you have three things that need doing, and you have to learn to prioritize which needs your attention at this very moment, and then move on to the next task in rapid succession.”
It’s never the answer they’re expecting, but it’s a pretty good answer.
But when it comes right down to it, three ball routines aren’t that impressive on stage. It’s sort of like being a magician and doing card tricks on stage. Nobody can really see what you’re doing unless you make grand gestures or good jokes.
But then I saw this routine on YouTube and I was blown away.
I can do almost every trick this juggler performs. But his presentation is amazing. This tightly rehearsed routine works perfectly with the music and brings new life to old tricks.
It just goes to show, you can make grand gestures with the tools that you have. I’m sure there’s a metaphor in here for other areas of life, but I’ll leave it for you to decide how to apply it.
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