Set The Right Priorities For Better Focus
I'd like to share an awesome story with you. It may be already familiar to you, but great stories are worth reading revisiting, because they remind us the values we ideally should adopt.
At times, we get lose our focus when we go about our daily hustle. Feeling overwhelmed, we tend to forget about the important things in our lives. This story is a great reminder to us to re-evaluate our priorities, and set them right:
A philosophy professor stood before his class and had some items in front of him. When the class began, he picked up a very large empty jar.
He then proceeded to fill the jar with rocks.
“Is the jar full?” he asked his students. “Yes,” everyone responded.
The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly; The pebbles rolled into the areas between the rocks.
“Is the jar full?” he asked again. This time, the students chuckled and agreed it was indeed full.
The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. The sand filled up all the space left.
He asked once more: “Is the jar full?”. The students found it funny that they had been tricked twice but nevertheless, they believed this time that the jar is really full. “Yes, Of course”
The professor then took up the cup of coffee beside him and poured the cup of coffee slowly into the jar, filling the empty space between the sand.
The whole class laughed.
After the laughter subsided, the professor said “Now, I want to imagine this jar representing your life. The rocks are the important things, such as your family, health, and relationship. If everything else was lost and only the rocks remained, your life would still be full. The pebbles are the other things that matter in your life such as your job, your house or car. The sand represents the “small stuff” and material possession.
If you put the sand into the jar first,” he continued, “there is no room for the rocks and the pebbles. The same goes for life.”
“If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff you will never have room for the things that are important to you.”
“Pay attention to the things critical to your happiness.”
“Spend time with your family, play with children, visit your parents. Take your spouse out for dinner. Go out with your friends. Take care of your health, go for a run, eat healthily. There will always be time to go to work, clean the house or wash the car.”
Take care of the rocks first, the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand.”
One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the coffee represented.
The professor smiled and said: “I am glad you asked. The coffee just shows that no matter how full your life may seem, there’s always room for a cup of coffee with friends.”
Are you placing emphasis on the things that truly matter? Those are the things that will bring joy and happiness into your life. Now, I'm not saying that the “sand” is minute and thus not important; but rather they can take priority after all the more important things in life like family and health. From time to time, we need to take a breather and re-evaluate our priorities in order to not lose our true focus in life.
If you feel that this message may help someone you care about, feel free to share it with them by sharing this message to them. 🙂
Show your commitment to a better focus by typing “I will take care of my health and relationships!” in the comments section below. 🙂
