Spinning Plates

Can you picture the old-time act of an entertainer spinning plates on sticks? The objective is to get all the plates spinning and keep them spinning without letting any of the plates fall. It’s an amazing feat to watch, but incredibly hard. Balancing all the spinning plates at once.

Several years ago, I was suffering from postpartum depression after my second son was born. I decided it would be beneficial for me to go see a therapist. During one of our sessions, this was the analogy my therapist gave me. She told me I was trying to keep all my plates spinning at once, and no one can keep all the plates spinning. Eventually, one, or two, or all of the plates would fall. She advised me to lessen the plates I needed to spin, so I could keep up with it.

I was reminded of this analogy again this week when I heard said in one of the videos for this week’s lesson. From Steve Blank, "... you got to make the rules or the start ups will take over your life...so you can balance these things whether you're a male or female." I feel I’m spinning a lot of plates again, and it is getting harder for me to keep up with all of them. I am having to reexamine which plates are the most important for me to keep spinning. My God, my family, my schooling, my home, and now my desires to create a fresh cut flower farm are the most important plates for me to keep up, balanced, and continually spinning. The other ones, all the other little plates, I’m learning to let them go or delegate them to someone else. I know in the long run this will help me to keep enough energy to give quality attention to my bigger plates.

My God, my family, my schooling, and my dream are all so important to me. They are my top priorities, but I have to find a balance between them. I know that if I let myself, I’ll just focus on growing my plants all day and neglect everything else. I was grateful for the reminder to “you got to make the rules”. I need to set boundaries for myself, set rules for myself. I need to set them and follow them; because like I said, so I can give quality attention to all of my priorities.

But something that is also pressing on my mind this week, one of the smaller to medium size plates that I can let go is, the worry of trying to an entrepreneur like all of the other entrepreneurs today. I need to find my niche. I need to learn what kind of entrepreneur I need to be, who the Lord needs me to be. I am not a trend setter or even a trend follower, but there is a place for me and my dream somewhere in this world. I’m happy to find out where I am meant to be, where I am needed. I’m not supposed to be like anyone else. I’m supposed to find out who I am meant to be.