Prioritizing what to focus on in your life is a question we all ask ourselves. We created a simple animation about the impact of focusing on the important things in life…or how if you focus on the minutia how you’ll end up missing out on the important things. This metaphor is applicable to one’s personal life as well one’s school or career.
Hope you enjoy it.
Prioritizing Your Life: Rocks, Pebbles and Sand
There’s a well-known story about a university professor that wanted to make a point about the importance of prioritizing how we spend our time.
The professor’s stood in front of his class with a display of items, he took a large empty jar and filled it with rocks approximately two inches in diameter. He then asked the class if the jar was full and they agreed yes the jar was full.
The professor then took a box of pebbles and added them to the jar and gave it a little shake to move the pebbles into the open areas around the rocks. The professor asked the class again, if the jar was full they agreed yes it is full.
This time the professor then took a box of sand and added it to the jar, filling the spaces between the rocks and the pebbles. He asked again, now is the jar full they laughed and agreed yes it’s full.
This jar is represents your life. The big rocks signify the really important things in your life, such as health family and friends. The pebbles are the other things that matter in your life, such as work or school. And the sand signifies the remaining small stuff, such as material possessions.
Now, if you were to reverse the order of filling the jar and add the sand first there would not be enough room for the rocks and the pebbles. The same principle applies to your life. If you spend too much time on the small stuff you won’t have enough space or time to focus on the things that are truly important, the big rocks.
So, prioritized the big rocks first. Practice self-care, spend quality time with the people you love and the rest is just pebbles and sand… they will always find some space.