You are a juggler... Say you have unlimited supply of balls to juggle with... But you decide how many balls to juggle with... But you can't pick up balls while you are juggling... So say there is a man standing near you who at random throws balls at you which you may or may not decide to catch, while you are juggling with whatever you already have.
Let's start with one ball. How long would one ball juggling keep you interested. So you catch another one thrown at you. Let's say you are pragmatic enough to not catch a third ball until you are proficient with the 2 balls you are already juggling. Now let's say the man decides when to throw a ball at you. He is the decision maker and not you. So he might not throw a ball at you for a long time even after you have become proficient with the no. of balls you are already juggling with.
Or he may throw a ball of a different size or color that you may or may not like. So every ball thrown at you is an opportunity. You may like it and you may not. But you hardly have a split second to decide.
Of course you may decide to throw away one of the balls you are juggling with if you don't like it too much. And of course some of the balls are high priority that you must juggle with eternally. And of course you can't catch too many balls at a time or you drop the high priority balls too.
There is a trade off here. You get exceedingly proficient with the existing no. of balls as time passes. There is always a learning curve if you take up a new ball so the juggling proficiency goes down by a magnitude or two (depending on the size and color of the ball) every time you take up a new ball.
Let's call these balls your responsibilities. Let's call the man that throws balls at you fate. Let's call juggling "LIFE". The high priority balls are family and profession. The lower priority balls are things that you are passionate about. And the rest of the balls are what keep the zing in your life.
Like marriage. Every time the marriage ball is thrown at you, you decide to catch or not to catch in a split second based on your existing proficiency with the balls you are already juggling with, and your priorities. This ball is crucial because Mr. Fate may not throw another one at you for a long long time. Boy ain't life complicated...?
I have probably caught too many balls at this time. I am having some serious troubles juggling with family, profession, investments, health, guitar, Boomer (My new pet, a 40 days old cream Labrador), music, gadgets. And I am looking at picking up a couple of more balls to juggle with like marriage, learning sanskrit as a language, Tango and Salsa Lessons.
Am I Superman or what...!!!