Lifes a juggling act.

(Transcript to video)

LIFE, it’s kind of like these three balls over here. You wake up, start with something simple like brushing your teeth and then you’re onto the next thing.  Eventually, things start to pile up and you’re going going and all of the sudden, YOU STOP. you take a lunch break maybe even go to toastmasters to listen to a speech on juggling and then things start to pile up again. That’s life! You don’t know what it is going to throw at you but you manage to juggle it day in and day out! It may get messy once in a while and you may fall, but you always pick yourself back up and continue juggling life.  That is life explained to you with these three balls and these three balls have taught me a lot. 

My whole life I always wanted to learn how to juggle.  I never wanted to be a clown or in a circus, no not like that, but the whole physics of juggling always intrigued me.  I remember As a kid I would pick up random items, throw them in the air attempting to juggle and would fail. I would become frustrated because I could never comprehend being able to manipulate 3 objects with two hands, it seemed out of this world and physically impossible.  By nature I am a curious person so therefore anything slightly intriguing to me I have to learn about. However, I had a horrible habit of starting something and finding excuses to eventually stop and moving on to the next thing.  I am sure some if not all of you can relate, but It was like that with many things until I had stumbled on this video on Youtube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MgBikgcWnY.  The title of it is “The first 20 hours” by Josh Kaufman.  It was a Ted Talk that taught you how to learn anything you want in a span of 20 hours.  It states that to be an expert in something you need at least 10,000 hours, but to be good at something all you need is 20 hours.  You can watch the video to hear the specific details, but I took that challenge and incorporated everything he talked about and applied it to juggling.  Everyday for about an hour after waking up from bed I would spend my time learning key information on how to juggle.  What frustrated me was not that I could not keep up the balls but rather I had to constantly pick up the fallen balls Just like life, the hardest part is picking yourself up after you fail.  I picked them up constantly and my lower back started to hurt from bending down to pick up the balls over and over in a span of 30 minutes.  But I stuck with it and no matter how frustrated I got I pushed through.  After a couple weeks I started to become better; however I would move around like an ape excited to see a banana because I did not have steady control of the balls, but over time I eventually learned how to control it and boy was it a workout…not just for your body but mind as well. I remember concentrating so hard I would begin to sweat. I never thought I would finally be able to juggle but I did. By committing myself to 20 hours I was able to perfect the sport of three ball juggling and through it I found out how my brain learned new things and how my body adapted after a period of time 

When I first started to learn how to juggle I came across an article of how juggling was being used for patients with brain trauma to help get some of their functionality back in their bodies and how it is not the act of juggling that actually helps the patient get better but instead  the act of picking up the balls and starting all over that actually helps them improve. Something that you don’t know about me is that I am a head trauma survivor.  6 years ago I was parkouring in A SCHOOL playground  and decided to make an attempt to jump on a 5 foot brick wall.  I landed, but quickly lost my footing and slipped back on cement with my head breaking my fall.  This was the result. And another thing about me looking at this picture is that I love to take selfies, in fact I really really like to take selfies lol all in the wrong moments. Luckily I was fine physically but the fall quickly altered my mental state making life a little mundane for a span of 2 years, but Just like juggling I eventually got through my slump and persisted to get well and picked myself back up…” Juggling taught me to focus, be patient and to always pick myself back up after you fail. And the mere act of picking up after I have failed started to become a habit and eventually applied in other areas of my life.  I had created a simple habit in my mind through mere repetition that carried over to my life and eventually started to change me as a person.  I never thought I would be the kind of person that was able to pick himself up so easily after I failed at something, but because of juggling I created a mind that was able to handle failure and setbacks.  As a society we always go go go and never stick with just one thing so pick something you have always wanted to learn and go for it.  It all starts with that first ball and eventually if you stick with it and don’t give up, after 20 hours, amazing things will start to happen.