The world record for juggling balls is 12. Twelve balls. For 1 minute. No longer. Look it up. When I first read it, I thought it was very little.
An average person can keep 5 balls in the air for a long time. Now of course I'm talking about the figurative aspect of juggling. Life is one big circus.
Harm Jan – whose real name is different – is seen as a super hero. He has a family, he is the driving force in a cycling club, he is treasurer at the korfball club and chairman of the parent council. He is also a member of the welfare committee. Oh yes, and he runs a company with several European branches.
Harm Jan juggles far too many balls. He doesn't feel well. Not physically and not mentally. I told Harm Jan that he has to limit himself to 5 balls. He has to drop the rest.
“That is impossible, Hans,” he says firmly and with a closed attitude. “The korfball club will no longer have a treasurer. The parent council cannot do without me. And within the welfare committee my role is rather, well, rather decisive.”
He shifts, hugs his arms tighter to his body and says, “I am indispensable.”
Aha. Harm Jan has made himself indispensable. I don't even have to ask him if he is still of added value. Because he is not, because he is indispensable.
The 'indispensable' has an expired shelf life. Paradoxically, you are in breach of ethics. It is a given that the so-called indispensable have long since ceased to be an enrichment for the organization.
With your indispensability you do violence to the organization. Because you may consider yourself indispensable; every performance comes to an end. No performance without resignation, so to speak. Such things often happen acutely because life is capricious. All data that you have appropriated will then be lost with you. Well, except for your legacy administration. Hopefully someone else can make sense of it.
In addition: building, guarding and protecting your status in the club is not in itself a sign of flexibility. And certainly not in the interest of the association or committee. I cannot make it milder for Harm Jan.
People like Harm Jan hold back the obvious changes. The natural progression. Grey that turns green. Like 'things are going'.
Get real, Harm Jan.
If the welfare committee is 'rather' leaning on you, then it is high time to pack your bags. And I would rather not talk about the lack of independence of the korfball association and the parent council. That is of course downright unhealthy.
In the juggling game of life, Harm Jan must limit himself to 5 balls. That's what I call him. And you too.
The first four balls are: Family. Work. Health. Friends. These are the balls on which a good life revolves. Where you read 'family', you can also fill in 'reflection'. Where you read 'work', you can make it 'task' or 'mission'. And on the 'friends' ball you can put the sticker 'social life'.
The fifth ball that is involved is the ball called Integrity. Maybe you could also call it 'reality'.
Sense of reality. Living according to authenticity. According to the truth, whatever it may be.
Life is juggling five balls.
Family or reflection. Work, task or mission. Health. Friends or social life. Integrity. You may make that reality. Authenticity, that is. Value. Harm Jan must pay extra attention to that ball.
Valuable is the same as dispensable. Thus, the story of Harm Jan is as round as a juggling ball.
Hans Ruinemans, boardroom monk