http://www.ispeech.org/text.to.speech
I recall playing rugby for my house team at school once. I was not a rugby player by any means, as I was in the school football team. However, I had reasonable speed and was clearly 'sporty', so my head of house put me in the team. Miles, I think was the name of the speedy winger that captained the house team...he was in the school rugby team and was obviously good.
Miles explained to me late in a game that he would make a run and I should run alongside him towards the try line. The opposition defence would be drawn towards him and then at the last moment he would hand off a pass to me to carry the ball over the line for what would most likely have been a match-winning try.
The move unfolded just as Miles had predicted and I had kept up with him as he sprinted towards the try line. Sure enough a couple, three even, opposition defenders were drawn towards him to close him down before he crossed over the try line. He would not make it on his own, so he duly threw the ball in my direction. There I was, ready for glory, just catch the ball and carry it over the try line to touch down for victory.
You know what's coming don't you?
Yes, a knock on...I dropped the bloody ball and the moment was lost.
It was a humiliating experience for a while and many a joke ensued of course but as luck would have it, we won the game anyway. Probably due to Miles deciding who he could pass to next time rather than me!
That is not the point really though. What is the point is that we as a team managed to achieve our objective despite me dropping the ball.
That's what I want to talk about today - dropping the ball - metaphorically speaking.
Sometimes, in our lives we accumulate tasks and jobs as we go along. We make ourselves busy and just keep going. Sometimes we try and find creative solutions and productivity hacks to help become more efficient and get more things done.
However, is that the right approach always?
I would like to suggest not always no.
This was brought to my attention (again!) by an unpleasant family event last week. My daughter was rushed into hospital late on Thursday night and is still there now. She is OK but still there...
I had a 5-day course that I was due to attend starting on Friday morning and I had a planned blog post to write on Friday, a property refinancing to organise, some follow up actions on a couple of property lets, some repairs to arrange and another to-do list of bits and pieces to take care of as ever.
When I heard the news of my daughter's situation, I did two things: 1) I drove (a bit too fast) 130 miles to be at her side and 2) dropped the balls...all of them.
Did you miss me on Friday? I expect not.
The course organiser was very understanding and said, 'we can book you into another date'
The property bits and pieces waited for 3-4 days to get done a little later
No big deal really.
I dd what was important to me and my daughter and nothing else last Friday. I just let everything else go.
My daughter should be OK and I can recover the situation with pretty much all the tasks and jobs on the list.
As I reflect on the unfortunate experience, I realised something along the way...in fact a couple of things:
- My family mean the world to me and are a large part of why I do what I do...but they just need me more sometimes
- Things can wait...dropping the ball sometimes won't be the end of the world
If we apply these principles to our daily routine, perhaps me may realise that dropping more balls is actually the right thing to do.
It's OK, we can do that...as long as we do something close to our core purpose and for those closest to us instead.
Are there any balls that perhaps you should drop? Is there anyone that would thank you if you did?
As for me, this past weekend has brought my perspective right back into laser focus and my daughter is front and centre...along with the rest of my family. I guess it should not have taken this event to remind me of this truism...
And this time I really can say 'it's been emotional'...for you Babazee 🙂