So I've been thinking about a colloquialism. The idea of "dropping the ball". I feel like I hear it a lot, and I use it pretty frequently myself. For anyone who is unfamiliar, it's not uncommon in American English to describe having failed to do a task, particularly one that someone else was counting on you to accomplish, as having "dropped the ball". "Man, I really dropped the ball there, I'm sorry." "We were really counting on Erica to do the final edits and submit that proposal, she really dropped the ball there" I haven't particularly looked into where it comes from, but I feel like it may be related to American Football. It's very important in that particular sport to hold onto a ball, and/or catch it. So, if you've dropped the ball, you have significantly let your team down.

But I'm a juggler. I have a bit of a different feeling about dropping things.

You might expect that I'd be just as opposed to dropping the ball as anyone, as clearly, if the ball hits the floor, that's failing at juggling right?

This is technically, more often than not, true. But I can tell you, no one who can juggle has never dropped one of those balls. If they've succeeded at juggling at all, they've dropped a LOT of balls, or at least the same 3 many many times. No one is born with an exact sense of how to throw a ball from one hand to the other, they will fail at that skill if they attempt it. But they must attempt it in order to learn it. My circus has dubbed its juggling course "Drop Stuff Academy" for this reason. If you're not dropping things, you're not learning. You're not doing anything new or challenging yourself. When this affects others, obviously you're going to have to apologize and do whatever you can to make up for it. Don't beat yourself up about it, learn from it. Figure out what went wrong and correct for it next time.

"OK, sure, I get it as an example on new things, but what about when I just F things up? Nothing really new, I just forget or don't get it done?"

I have another juggling parallel for you! I often use juggling as an "add on" to another skill, stilt-walking or acrobatics are common ones for me. My 'range' of where I can catch things shrinks considerably when I'm doing a balance trick at the same time. So sometimes, that means a throw that I could usually catch, with a bit of extra effort, but not one that's a big problem? It's no longer in my range. I will drop it. And I do so intentionally. Because if I don't? If I try to grab it? I will fall off my stilts, or my acro partner.

That could kill me.

Now, it may only cause me to break an arm, or I might fall in the best possible way and be fine.. But that risk isn't worth that catch. The ball or club can be retrieved, with no or little harm to anyone.

So when you're overtired, stressed, dealing with too many other projects? Sometimes you have to drop a ball, or two, or heck all of them to stay on your stilts. Don't wreck yourself to finish every last thing. If you can hand things off to someone else to finish so that the project isn't harmed, great. If you can't?

That's ok. If you're trying, I can almost guarantee that you're doing better than you feel like you are. (Humans have a tendency to assume they're doing poorly when they care)

Drop the ball, take care of you, and pick it up again when you're ready.