Letting Go of the Pressure to Be Everything: How to Stop Spinning and Start Living
Have you ever felt like life is just a constant effort to keep a dozen plates spinning in the air?
Almost like if you lose focus for one second, everything you care about will crash to the ground? You are not alone.
The Spinning Plates Metaphor: Not Everything Breaks
Here’s the thing about spinning plates: some are ceramic, but others are plastic.
Ceramic plates shatter when they fall. Plastic ones? They bounce. That means not everything in your life will fall apart if you drop it. Some things can wait to be picked up later.
The key to managing life’s overwhelm isn’t about perfectly juggling everything. It’s about recognizing which “plates” are critical and which ones are okay to let fall.
What’s a Ceramic Plate & What’s Just Plastic?
Ceramic plates represent what matters to you most. They’re your core priorities and often include:
Caring for your family
Managing your health (especially if dealing with chronic illness and chronic pain)
Maintaining employment
Prioritizing your mental well-being
Honoring your boundaries and energy limits
Plastic plates represent the responsibilities you might feel pressure to keep up with, but won’t cause harm if you pause or delay completing them. These often include:
Keeping up with laundry
Staying on top of dishes
Making home-cooked meals every night
Replying to texts right away
Saying “yes” to a request to avoid disappointing someone
The Cost of Spinning All the Plates
We live in a world that often celebrates and champions doing it all to be enough, so it's no wonder that the idea of being perfect or keeping every plate spinning becomes the way we operate. We’re pressured by hustle culture and perfectionism. And unfortunately, trying to achieve this often leaves us in a state of burnout, resentment, and exhaustion.
Let the Plastic Plates Fall!
If this resonates with you, know this: you’re not alone. And, you don’t have to keep pushing yourself to the edge of burnout.
Try this:
Identify which “plates” in your life are truly ceramic. Be honest with yourself.
Practice letting the plastic ones fall, even if it feels uncomfortable at first.
Learning how to release the pressure of perfectionism and people-pleasing takes time and intention. It’s not about doing this perfectly, but taking small steps to move you out of chronic stress and overwhelm to a life rooted in rest, groundedness, and self-compassion.
Let the plastic plates fall!
