I tend to take on a lot. Anyone who knows me knows I love making new friends, starting new projects, learning new skills and discovering new hobbies. I’ve been made to feel admired, criticized, questioned and overwhelmed for this little “habit” of mine. But when it comes right down to it, I wouldn’t change any minute of this crazy, hectic, fun and amazing life! But what I have learned is how to take it as it comes and make sure it all fits in.
So at some point in the late 90’s I got a forward. No Earth shattering news there, but the content of that forward has stayed with me (unlike the thousands of other forwards I’ve gotten since). Let me see if I can rephrase its words of wisdom to demonstrate my point.
Say you have a clear glass jar, filled with sand. You add to it pebbles and maybe a few little rocks. Now your jar is filled pretty much to the brim. The problem is you have some larger rocks that you were supposed to put into the jar, but since that the jar is full, they won’t fit.
Moral of the story, the rocks and sand represent different aspects of your life; family, friends, career, spirituality, hobbies... etc. The size of the rocks is proportional to the importance of each aspect of life to you and your happiness. For example if you think family and friends are important, they’re the big rocks. Learning Dutch, that’s more like a pebble (well for me anyway.) The size of the jar is also significant. The fixed, inflexible glass jar represents time and its constraints.
That being said, why would you put the least important stuff, sand (for me that’s organizing my closet), in first? When it’s all said and done the things in your life that you value most you’ll eventually run out of room for. All of a sudden, you’re unhappy and wondering how you can make more time to squeeze it all in. The thing is the glass jar isn’t going to change size any time soon, just as time isn’t a flexible commodity either.
But what if we were to change our perspective? Rather than creating more time, we reorganized our priorities. Take that same jar; put your big rocks in first. Next take the smaller rocks and pebbles and drop them in. Watch how they find their way between the crevasses of the larger rocks. Also notice that there’s still space in between all the stones, and go ahead and add the sand to the jar. Again the sand trickles through the tiny spaces between the rocks and pebbles. Oh hell, go ahead and even pour in some water, it’ll fit!
Life’s short and there’s a lot to take in. Keep your priorities in mind. Time management is a misnomer; what we need to manage has nothing to do with time. You can’t control time, that’s a constant, inflexible factor. You’ll have to decide what’s most important to you in your life. Make sure you create space for those things first and respect that commitment. The smaller, less important things will find their way into the crevasses.
How do you fill your jar?
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