The Zen Story of Sand, Stone, and Bottles
Organize your life properly.
In my experience as a teacher, and mentor it is important to have boundaries and systematic ways of thinking. This helps us effectively prioritize.
When we make rational choices we do so with an understanding of the hierarchies in rank, position, status, or privilege, concerning people, place, things, and ideas.
Here is a story about priorities.
“A professional problem solver stood before his team with some items on the table in front of him. When the meeting began, wordlessly he picked up a very large and empty pickle jar and proceeded to fill it with stones, about 2 inches in diameter.
He then asked the team members if the jar was full. They agreed that it was.
So, he then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles, of course, rolled into the open areas between the rocks.
He then asked again if the jar was full. They agreed it was.
He picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up the remaining open areas of the jar.
He then asked once more if the jar was full. The team-members responded with a unanimous “Yes.”
“Now,” said the team leader, “I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life. The rocks are the important things — your family, your partner, your health, your children — things that if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full. The pebbles are the other things that matter — like your job, your house, your car. The sand is everything else, the small stuff.”
“If you put the sand into the jar first,” he continued, “there is no room for the pebbles or the rocks. The same goes for your life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff, you will never have room for the things that are important to you. Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. Play with your children. Take your partner out dancing. There will always be time to go to work, clean the house, give a dinner party, or fix the disposal.”
“In problem-solving and in life, take care of the rocks first — the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand.”
In life, the greatest priority is usually education and the accumulation of knowledge and wisdom.
What should be a top priority in anyone’s life?
Perhaps the foremost thing a person needs to do to break that vicious cycle is to drop almost all those unhealthy skills off. We don’t need them anymore.
They need to get rid of the baggage that they’ve been carrying and the unnecessary weight their shoulders have now gotten used to. But amidst that, they need to be kind and flexible in figuring out after all what forced their younger version to adopt all those in the first place.
Not many people would relate to this, but for those who unfortunately do, please be patient with yourself. Unlearning behavior that you have adapted yourself to for years is hard and what’s harder is to understand which parts you need to alter and which not. Educating yourself would be the ultimate solution, and self-acceptance must be the first step of that ladder.
It is difficult to heal an emotional wound that you are unaware of.
I’ve had a few intrusive thoughts that were so powerful in my imagination that they could make me panic anywhere and at any moment until someone finally made me understand how trivial they were in reality.
This story is an excerpt from my course “How to Become Really Wealthy”
©Lewis Harrison, all rights reserved.
Here are a few in a similar vein
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Before you go…
I am Lewis Harrison, a successful entrepreneur, and advisor to philanthropists. I am also the award-winning author of over twenty books on business, leadership, personal growth and strategic thinking. For over a decade I was the producer and host of the show “What’s Up” on NPR-affiliated WIOX FM in New York.
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Now, aside from writing on Medium, and connecting personally with my readers, I teach seminars and speak on personal development, and life strategies throughout the world.
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