Released On 01 June 2026
Sheila's blog: Dropping The Ball
Sheila shares how dropped balls signal overload, not failure.
There is something quietly unsettling about dropping the ball. Missing a deadline. Forgetting to reply. Seeing a missed call that mattered. Even when the consequences are minor, it can feel disproportionately heavy. At least it does for me.
I dropped the ball recently on writing this blog. I missed the deadline and had to be chased for it. Around the same time, I missed a scheduled phone call from my MS nurses. Neither situation was catastrophic. No disasters unfolded. No one was harmed. You are still reading this blog, even though it is a week late.
But I found myself thinking hard about why these moments bothered me so much.
I think it is because I place a great deal of value on being reliable. I do not like letting people down. I do not like missing things. I like being dependable at work, present for my family, organised with my health, responsive to friends and generally on top of life. Or at least appearing to be.
The reality, though, is that life does not always allow for perfect balancing.
The missed call from the MS nurses happened because I was having another treatment for my MS at the time. In other words, I was not neglecting my health; I was actively managing it. The late blog happened in the middle of holding down a full-time job while also trying to be a good wife, sister, daughter and friend.
At some point recently, I realised that exhaustion can sometimes disguise itself as guilt.
I suspect many of us carry around an internal scoreboard of everything we have not done, rather than noticing everything we are already holding together. We focus on the one dropped ball instead of the twenty that are still somehow in the air.
That does not mean deadlines do not matter or that commitments should be ignored. They do matter. Reliability matters. Following through matters. But so does perspective.
Sometimes a ball gets dropped because there are simply too many being carried at once.
And perhaps part of maturity is learning the difference between carelessness and capacity.
I am learning, slowly, that forgiving myself is not the same as lowering my standards. It is recognising that being human occasionally means something gives a little. It means accepting that there are seasons where survival, treatment, work and relationships are already taking a significant amount of energy, even if outwardly life still looks “fine”.
So, if you are reading this while feeling guilty about the thing you forgot, the deadline you missed, the message you have not replied to or the appointment you had to rearrange, perhaps give yourself a little perspective too.
Life usually continues.
People are often more understanding than we imagine.
And sometimes doing your best really is enough.
Until next time — and I will genuinely try my very best not to be a week late again
Sheila has worked in the asset management industry for over 15 years. She is married to a wonderful husband, is mother to two amazing children, has Secondary Progressive Multiple Sclerosis and lives in London. Sheila goes to the MS Therapy Centre in Harrow for physio and hyperbaric oxygen therapy once a week. Donations to support this wonderful organisation are very welcome. Sheila can be found on Instagram @MS_in_the_City. https://www.harrowmscentre.co.uk/donate
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