Your Day is Like a Balloon

When we originally wrote this blog post, we started with this concept. “Your day is like a sausage… you can only fit so much inside the casing.” After some good feedback and sage advice, we switched from the visual of meat to a balloon. If you’re curious about the original sausage post, you can read it here. For everyone else, envision a balloon…

Imagine your day as blowing air into that balloon. If you’re anything like us, you’re trying to fill it with as much as possible. You’re blowing it up as full as you can at work with projects, meetings, calls, and coffees. Then, on the personal side of life, we add family time, connecting with friends, vacations, and all the housekeeping things that need to be done to keep life moving. Finally, with whatever room is left, we squeeze in some time for ourselves, our hobbies, and a little self-care.

You can see what’s happening here. The balloon keeps getting fuller and fuller, and we keep trying to squeeze in just a little more air until it’s about to burst. Then, we add one last breath, and it pops with pieces of balloon flying everywhere.

We did an exercise recently where we mapped out our days, looking at where we invested our time hour by hour for a week. Then, we compared what we were actually doing with the things we had told each other were important and aligned with our goals. Two things became very evident.

First, many things we were filling our days with weren’t aligned with our goals and wouldn’t move the needle. Second, and even more important, it was clear that we were trying to overfill our balloon. There wasn’t room for everything, and if we continued squeezing things in, something would break.

When you’re unaware that this is happening, it can be easy to just keep filling up the balloon. You add more and more, keep saying yes to things, and over-promise on how quickly you can deliver on things. The result? A work and personal life that pops.

Overfilling the balloon does not work.

Call-to-Action

Look at what you’re filling your balloon, or your life, with. What are you investing your time and energy into personally and professionally, and are those things the RIGHT things? Most importantly, are you overfilling your life’s balloon to the point of popping? Assess where you’re at and how full your life is, and then adjust as needed, so you resist the urge to add one more breath.