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specialists in enhancement and management of human performance |
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-- Author unknown "I'm dying here!" he told me, his voice little more than a controlled scream erupting out of massive frustration. "Every day I make a list of all the important stuff I'm going to get done and it never happens! All this urgent crap keeps coming up and taking over my life and by the end of the day nothing's happened that really matters. What ticks me off the most is that I know I'm not doing what I've got to do if I'm ever going to get the life I want... and it's driving me crazy!" Welcome to the club. Despite all our good intentions, most of us lose our lives, literally, to the daily flood of "important stuff" that drowns our desks, our minds, and our hearts. And because we spend our time majoring in the minors, we find ourselves, by day's end, staring at a checked-off to-do list... rationalizing how "it all had to be done"...but knowing we really haven't done anything that's going to get us out of the box. That's where the story I received recently from a reader comes in... One day an expert in time management was speaking to a group of business students and, to drive home a point, used an illustration those students would never forget. As he stood in front of the group of high powered overachievers he said, "Okay, it's time for a quiz." He then produced a one-gallon, wide-mouthed Mason jar and set it on the table in front of him. Then he produced about a dozen fist-sized rocks and carefully placed them, one at a time, into the jar. When the jar was filled to the top and no more rocks would fit inside, he asked, "Is this jar full?" Everyone in the class said, "Yes." Then he said, "Really?" He reached under the table and pulled out a bucket of gravel. Then he dumped some gravel in and shook the jar causing pieces of gravel to work themselves down into the space between the big rocks. Then he asked the group again, "Is the jar full?" By this time the class was on to him. "Probably not," one of them answered. "Good!" he replied. He reached under the table and brought out a bucket of sand. He started dumping the sand in the jar and it went into all of the spaces left between the rocks and the gravel. Once more he asked the question, "Is this jar full?" "No!" the class shouted. Once again he said, "Good." Then he grabbed a pitcher of water and began to pour it in until the jar was filled to the brim. Then he looked at the class and asked, "What's the point of this demonstration?" One eager-beaver raised his hand and said, "The point is, no matter how full your schedule is, if you try really hard you can always fit some more things into it!" "No," the speaker replied, "that's not the point. The truth this illustration teaches us is: if you don't put the big rocks in first, you'll never get them in at all." What are the 'big rocks' in your life? Your children, your loved ones, your education, your dreams, some worthy cause, teaching, mentoring others, doing things you love, taking time for yourself, your health, your significant other? Remember to put those *big rocks* in first or you'll never get them in at all. And if you sweat the little stuff (the gravel, the sand) then you'll fill your life with little things you worry about that don't really matter, and you'll never have the real quality time you need to spend on the big, important stuff (the big rocks). So, today, while you're thinking about this little story, ask yourself this question: what are the 'big rocks' in my life? Then ask: what are the "big rocks" in my work? Then put them in your jar first.
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