For us, lesser mortals there are many more roles that we all are compelled to play simultaneously. We play roles within the various orbits of our numerous circles ranging from family, friends, communities, and sporting, cultural, avocational, and vocational systems. Each system places demands on each of us. Some of the demands may be pleasurable and some may place varying degrees of stresses on us. So with all these multiple roles that we all play simultaneously we arrive at the modern concept of multi-tasking and so almost automatically comes to mind the modern stereotype of the species specific multi-tasker of note ,” the modern working mother “ who is credited with being the only successful multi-tasker, able to keep all her balls in the air at one time while the poor male counterpart is stereotyped as a uni-tasker who can only do, let alone master , one action at a time. As with most stereotypes and prejudgements neither is true - the truth lies somewhere in between.
Saddled with multiple roles and tasks, most of us are probably metaphorically in the centre of a self-orbiting situation with all the planetary balls orbiting around us. To keep these balls in the air and in their planned orbits is no mean feat. Those of us who are able to do so probably enjoy a certain degree of harmony. Disharmony occurs when one or more of those balls go awry and out of kilter. The imaginary gravitational forces thus disturbed will result in the orbits of some or all of the other balls going awry and that can lead to the whole system moving towards what could become a cataclysmic edge requiring intervention.
(Being unable to multi-task, I am taking a break by heading to the T.V to uni–task by watching what I hope will not be Bafana Bafana’s final game in this tournament. 3 hours later –not to be but hey! do you feel it , that sharp "eish!" that’s in the air?)
So the soccer intervened but the intervention I was referring to was obviously a coaching scenario.
Looking with a slightly jaundiced eye at modern society, I am somewhat astounded how we create a spectrum of tasks, some virtual, that a generation or even less ago did not even exist as tasks. Then of course we have to learn to cope with these new tasks and the resultant stresses they produce. As an example: the gym or “exercise factory.” Factoring this modern amenity and task into our busy lives requires extra time management and navigational stresses in the traffic. We need to get to the gym because the modern labour saving devices in our homes and offices have deprived us of much physical activity. Some spend inactive time in the traffic to get to a supermarket to get a ready cooked meal in the belief that we are saving time and effort by not preparing a meal in our own kitchens that probably are fitted with all sorts of underutilised labour saving machines. Then we carry the virtual office around with us so that we can twitter and tweet and be so busy and stressed. Balls flying all around us.
Then there are the uninvited balls, the asteroids, and meteors that are thrown at us - the tasks and situations we never asked for nor wanted. It is these balls that can disturb the orbits of the regularly orbiting planetary balls and cause havoc. Examples could include natural disasters, an attack, violence, an unwanted diagnosis, a market, or a relationship crash.
I have recently coached a few medical practitioners who are being so buffeted by these rogue balls that they have begun to hate their professional life because instead of practising their calling which they value and enjoy, they are being forced by external controllers to become primarily administrators answerable to the bureaucrats of insurers and extra tasking to fulfil CPD stipulations and fee negotiations. Coaching in this type of situation brings to the awareness of the coachees that these threatening rogue balls need to be separated in whatever possible way so that their orbits do not interfere with the more orderly arrangement of the regular balls. In fact, more than one set of balls needs to be kept in the air. Techniques of time management and delegation of duties may play a role. Internal attitudinal changes of acceptance of, and a distancing from, these demands by recognising that while these do not belong to the primary purpose, they may prove helpful. |