Work, Family, Health, Friends, and Spirit - Five balls by James Patterson

Imagine life is a game in which you are juggling five balls. The balls are called work, family, health, friends, and integrity (your spirit) . And you're keeping all of them in the air. But one day you finally come to understand that work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back. The other four balls–family, health, friends, integrity–are made of glass. If you drop one of these, it will be irrevocably scuffed, nicked, perhaps even shattered. And once you truly understand the lesson of the five balls, you will have the beginnings of balance in your life.

Imagine life as a game in which you are juggling some five balls in the air. You name them - Work - Family - Health - Friends - Spirit, and you're keeping all of these in the air.

You will soon understand that work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back. But the other four balls -- family, health, friends and spirit are made of glass. If you drop one of these, they will be irrevocably scuffed, marked, nicked, damaged or even shattered.

Totally agreed. To me my spirit is the most important thing as well as my family - actually Mom. She needs lots of attention before going back to nature. I know as a human being, we need to answer the nature's call, my mom will do the same at most in 50 yeas. Sometimes I was mean to her, even though I always aware of her problem, but I am a human being as well....so sometimes I was not friendly to her. I should keep this in mind more seriously. Time and resources are limited, and I should focus on something important in my life rather than other's criteria. Focus!

Goal for this year.

1. Appreciation : to earn the appreciation of honest critics, to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others;
2. Respect : to win the respect of intelligent people
3. Trust : to build trust with at least two friends and two coworkers 
4. Individual growth
5. Companionship with co-workers

Recall from 80/20 principle , the village theory

From Chapter 12,  The 80/20 Principle: The Secret to Success by Achieving More with Less” by Richard Koch

“Apparently, the common pattern of people in any society is to have two important childhood friends, two significant adult friends and two doctors. Typically, there are two powerful sexual partners who eclipse the others. Most commonly, you fall in love only once and there is one member of your family whom you love above all others. The number of significant personal relationships is remarkably similar for everyone, regardless of their location, sophistication or culture. This has led to the anthropologists’ ‘village theory’. In an African village, all these relationships happen within a few hundred meters and are often formed within a short period of time. For us, these relationships may be spread all over the planet and over a whole lifetime. They nonetheless, constitute a village which we each have in our heads. And once these slots are filled, they’re filled forever. The anthropologists say that if you have too much experience, too early, you exhaust your capacity for further deep relationships. This may explain the superficiality often observed in those whose profession or circumstances force them to have a great number of relationships, such as salespeople, prostitutes or those who move house very frequently.”

For This reason we should be careful in choosing our relationships and try to fill these slots with the most valuable people we can find and not rush to fill them.