February 4, 2009 - While attending church this weekend our pastor demonstrated a very effective metaphor for time. It's given me food for thought ever since so I felt compelled to share it here... Here's how the story goes...
A speaker was giving a speech for a group of successful managers and executives at a large corporation. The topic of the speech was "Time Management". The speaker wanted to illustrate that you can't really manage time because it's a fixed asset. In other words, assuming we all make it through the day, your day will contain exactly as many seconds, minutes, and hours as mine. So you can't "manage" it as though you can borrow from tomorrow and save up from yesterday. The only thing you can control and manage is YOU, and how you use the time you are given... That being said, the speaker placed a large glass cylinder on the table and began filling it with large rocks. When he could no longer fit any more rocks in the container, he asked the audience if they believed the cylinder was full? Several raised their hands indicating they thought it was... After seeing their response, the speaker produced a container of gravel and began pouring it into the container. When the cavities between the large rocks had filled and no more gravel would fit in the container, he again asked the audience if they believed the container was full? Much more hesitant to answer, most did not respond... Then, the speaker produced a container of sand and filled the smaller cavities. He repeated the process one more time using a pitcher of water until everyone was finally in agreement that the container was indeed full.
Standing behind the cylinder filled with the variety of materials, the speaker asked the group gathered what they believed was the point of the exercise? One bright young manager raised his hand and boldly announced that he believed the message was that "no matter how full you think your schedule is, you can always fit something else in"... Several in the crowd nodded in agreement seeing a reflection of their own schedule in the demonstration. However, the speaker shook his head from side to side and responded "no". In fact, the point of the demonstration is that "if you don't put the large rocks in first, you won't be able to fit them in later".
Having pondered this demonstration as it was presented to me, it gave me reason to evaluate what my "Big Rocks" are and whether or not I am effectively putting them in my jar first everyday. What are really the most important things in your life and are you making time for them as you should? How often do you fill your jar? If every jar represents a day, do you control what is placed into that jar? If you don't fill it, someone or several others will fill it for you...
Right now, I'm thinking about my "Big Rocks", I hope this will help you do the same...
Randy
