by Michael Neufeld 

Albert Einstein was quoted as saying, "Life is like riding a bicycle.  To keep your balance you must keep moving."  Certainly I have found this to be most true in my life most recently.  I always admired those around me that had so much on their plates that it seemed they made the impossible possible.  They always seemed to have the perfect mix of life and work, business and pleasure. 

In a conversation about life, relationships, careers and other stuff just a few weeks ago over a game of darts with friends at the Icehouse Pub in downtown Punta Gorda, I recalled a philosophy on life that I once read in a book - the Five Balls.  Each of us is given five balls.  One is rubber and four are glass.  The rubber ball is work.  If you drop it, it will always bounce back.  The other four glass balls are family, friends, health and integrity.  If you drop them, they are shattered.  They won't bounce back.

The Five Balls is a profound philosophy on life that I will take with me throughout my life, and will share with my child.  There is little we can do to change circumstances and life changing experiences, but integrity is what we bring to that event.  We can control and manage our integrity as family, health and friends happen TO us.  Work often becomes a main focus point in our lives that many of us draw our value from, but often something comes between you and that rubber ball.  After searching a few books in my office I found that this valuable lesson was shared by Rebecca Ryan author of Live First, Work Second in her book as she recalled a hospice nurse sharing it to her.  I hope it serves a purpose in your life as well.

A new program in the direction of professional and personal development for the Charlotte County Young Professionals is the Next Leaders Webcast Series.  This series is designed to help young professionals develop skills and self-knowledge to make them more effective at work and in their personal lives. Charlotte County Young Professionals is excited to partner with Next Generation Consulting to connect our members to these unique learning opportunities.  The three webcasts titled, ‘Get a Life! How to Renegotiate Your Work, So You Can Have a Life', ‘Five Things the CEO Wants You to Know, But Probably Hasn't Mentioned', and ‘Congratulations, You've Been Promoted! (Now What?) 9 Ideas to Help you Kick Butt in Your New Role as a Manager.' 

You can visit http://www.ccyp.info/ for more info about registering for this webcast series beginning soon.  We hope to make this a successful first step into a professional development benefit to our members.  Stay tuned as I do my best to juggle my five balls and share more on my blog at http://www.ccyp.info/ and our organization brings more value to our membership and our community.