Make time for the big things, the little ones will follow

Everyone wants to achieve something in life. Everyone wishes to have a perfect life with accomplishments, happiness, beautiful experiences and so on. But we don’t always get what we expect from life. I remember a story by Stephen Covey.

Once a professor was speaking to a group of students. He kept a jar on a table in front of the students. He took a few big rocks and placed them on top of the jar. He asked his students, “Is this jar full?” The students replied, “Yes.” He then got a bucket full of pebbles and dumped the pebbles in the jar. When he shook the jar, all the pebbles filled the spaces between the big rocks.

Once again, he asked the students, “Is this jar full?” The students replied, “No, it is not.” He then put some sand in the jar. When he did so, the sand filled the gaps between the pebbles and the big rocks. He turned to his students and asked, “Is the jar full?” to which the students replied, “No. It’s still not full!”

So the professor got some water and filled the jar to the brim. For the last time, he asked, “What does this illustrate?” A student raised her hand and said that it didn’t matter how busy your schedule was, if you wanted, you could always fit more things in your schedule.

What do those big stones signify in our life? These big rocks are the big things in our life — our loved ones, our health, doing well professionally, taking care of our elders, our education, etc. Our lives revolve around these big stones. And unless we make space for the big stones first, we will not get time for them later. Always make sure to put the big stones first, the little ones will make space for themselves later.