Golf balls, pebbles, sand and a beer! | Life Series

Let’s do a virtual experiment.

We will need nothing but some imagination and be open to internalize the outcome, and there are no side effects.

Experiment time: less than 3 min.

Like most things in life, a reminder is sometimes essential, so if you happen to have done this before, I encourage you to keep going.

We will need the following imaginary ingredients: imagine –

* A regular sized jar,
* A bottle of beer (not empty),
* Some sand,  
* Some small pebbles and
* A few golf balls  

Here’s how we get started:

* First, empty the beer into the jar.
* Pour all the sand into the jar. Imagine a mixture of sand and your favourite beer.
* Stuff all the pebbles into the jar. We may have to shove some of them in. And finally,
* Drop the golf balls into the jar.

If you were following the instructions virtually, then you will find that after pouring all the sand into the jar filled with beer, and with most of the pebbles up to the brim, there is no place for some of the remaining pebbles and no place for the golf balls at all.

Let’s keep going.

Now let’s try reversing the mixing order of the ingredients.

* First, drop all the golf balls into the jar
* Stuff all the pebbles into the jar. Imagine how they slide around the curves of the golf balls.
* Now pour all the sand into the jar. Imagine how the sand effortlessly fits within the smallest space in between the golf balls and the pebbles. And in no time all the sand is now in the jar.
* Now finally, empty the beer into the jar. The jar is now full.  

Congratulations! You have completed the experiment successfully.

Besides physics and the process of sedimentation, what else is happening here?

 

 

* The golf balls are like the major priorities in our life such as health, family, relationships, career and passion.
* The pebbles are other essential things in our life such as a big house, expensive cars, exotic vacations, etc.
* The sand represents all the noise in our life such as the meaningless time spent on social sites, empty conversations, depressing and negative news, complaints about what we don’t have, worries that we shouldn’t be worried about, and everything else that should not be important in our life.

As the second experiment, our lives are like the jar. If we set our priorities correctly, then we will be able to live a wholesome life. It’s effortless to get lost in this hyper-connected world continually influencing our priorities. We will continue to be surrounded by pebbles and sand, but if you stack your priorities right then, they won’t replace what’s most important for us. We change the order of priorities letting insignificant things in, and our life becomes imbalanced with things that don’t matter.  

Set priorities right and practice control over what we want to do each day. Don’t let the sand and pebbles take the place of the golf balls. If we don’t control our priorities someone else will.

You are probably wondering, (and if you aren’t, I will say it anyway) what about the beer?

No matter what is going on in your life, there’s always room for a couple of beer with family and friends, or hot black tea in my case.

The jar is your life. Make sure you are filling it with the right items in the correct order.

Share your thoughts.

Success to you!

Razak
CommonInterest