Professor Fred Diehl had a few intriguing non-biology lessons that have stuck with me since my first year of college. This one has likely been around the block, but the first time I saw it was in his class. He had a large mason jar and put a few nice-sized rocks in it. Then he asked us if any more could fit in the jar. During the murmurs of no, he pulled out some river stones and fit them in around the rocks. Then asked if any more could fit in the jar.
Next he pulled out some pebbles and nudged them into all the empty spaces. The jar looked pretty full to us. But he had a bag full of aquarium gravel and poured it in to fill all the crevices that were left in the jar. We were all fairly satisfied that the jar was full.
Professor Diehl was not. He pulled out a bag of sand and managed to pour an unbelievable amount of sand into the jar as well. Finally we all agreed that the jar was full.
We all thought this was a lesson on limitations and how you can always do just a little more than you think. But that wasn’t it at all. The lesson was all about the rocks. His point was, if you don’t put the big rocks in first, they’ll never make it into the jar.
So he pressed us to remember this in life. Figure out what your big rocks are—you family, your passions. In business, your vision, your goals. Be sure to place them in your daily jar first. The “pebbles and sand” (email, laundry, bits and pieces of your daily grind) will always be able to fill in the little gaps and holes of your day. But if you don’t give your time to the big rocks first, you will never find the space for them in your “jar.”
What is one of your big rocks?
