#deletefacebook.....

On Saturday 24th March 2018 I deleted my Facebook account. I guess it coincided with the #deletefacebook campaign that was spawned from the Cambrdge Analytica data mining scandal but it was much more a personal matter.

I had used FB as a sort of diary for many years and found it useful to be able to look back on my various adventures but I felt that I was getting sucked into a Facebook slave and I didn't like how adictive it was becoming to be constantly checking (and liking/reacting) to things just to be part of what was going on around me.

I just wanted a diary but I have never been good with the idea of a little book!

So, as I said, I closed the FB account down and was thinking about what to do next and I stumbled across a blog from someone who's interests seemed very similar to my own. I liked what I was reading bu there was no demand or expectaion that I reacted.

Realising that I had a Blogger account that had been lying dormant for years, I decided to give it a go and see what happened next!

We shall see......

At the X roads: Are you still juggling?

Are you still juggling?

Some years ago I working near Koln in Germany. The German site was an entity that had been acquired by a US based, global, Medical Technology company and was undergoing rapid growth and change that was extremely challenging for most managers and staff.

I often found myself working weekends due to the time differences between Germany and the head offices on the US West Coat but, one weekend, I was walking around Koln’s city close to the famous Dom (cathedral). Of the many street performers that I came across on that day, one particular act captured my attention. A guy was juggling an ever increasing number of the usual juggling objects, going higher and higher, until.... At a certain moment.... The climax of his act seemed to be the predictable disaster when everything went out of control and everything crashed to the pavement around him. The adults marvelled at the skill of the juggler while the children enjoyed the chaotic crescendo and the frantic rush to recover the various objects.

I sat and watched the performer and found myself reflecting on the years that I had been working in Germany and the way in which my ability to juggle numerous tasks had increased week by week but was that crescendo approaching? Was I still juggling or were things starting to fall to the ground all around me? Did it matter if I “dropped a few balls” and how could I tell the critical ones to catch from the ones that could later be collected up by someone else? I couldn’t answer the questions at that moment but I have frequently used the phrase “am I still juggling” as a way of questioning and evaluating the degree of control I have over my current circumstances!

Am I juggling? Or , to say it another way.... Am I in control? If not, what am I dropping?

Or to put it differently.....

• Do I know what tasks I am not doing or doing to a lower standard than I am satisfied with due to pressures beyond my control?
• 
  
• What are the consequences to me personally and professionally or to the company if I am “no longer juggling” (not in control)?
• What should I do about it?
• What is the timeline for action?

In case you are wondering, the decision to move on from a particular situation is not a sign of failure. The achievements that led to the question are the ones that fill the resume and, just as the street performer had shown me, each crescendo is a moment from which the next part of the act will commence!