How to Fill your Jar of Life
I want to do a quick reminder about making sure you keep the most important things first.
Maybe you’ve heard of the analogy of putting important things first as related to a Jar of Life.
Let’s put it this way. You represent the jar. You have important things, you have necessary items and then you have frivolous things. They all have different sizes.
The most important things are about the size of a golf ball. These represent your loved ones, your family, passions, desires, goals, and relationships. In your jar of life, you can fit around 20 golf balls.
Next you have the necessary things. Although they’re not as important, you still need them. They are the size of a pebble. These represent things like paying your bills, going to work, producing an income, getting an education, dealing with your kids’ school, medical appointments, etc. Those things are necessary, but they’re not the most important thing.
Finally, you have the frivolous things, which are the size of granules of sand. These are the really annoying little things. For some of you, that can be your day job. It could also be other things that feel like a waste of time. It could be watching movies, playing video games, scrolling through social media with no purpose, doing recreational drugs, etc. How do you spend your free time?
The point of this analogy is that you can fit all three categories in that jar.
If you start with the most important things, the golf balls, you then proceed to fill the jar with the necessary things, which are the pebbles. You start putting the pebbles in, and the pebbles fall in between where all the golf balls are. The very last thing, the unimportant things are the granules of sand. When you put the sand in, it fills in all the rest of the holes. It all fits.
Through this process the jar looks full the entire time—your jar is full of golf balls, together with the pebbles and sand.
But, if you start with the very trivial things, such as answer emails as soon as you get them, every time your phone rings you look at it, wasting time with video games and social media, binge-watching Netflix etc., you will have filled your jar a third of the way.
Then, you would add the necessary things, filling your jar now with the pebbles. Then when you try to put the golf balls in, there won’t be enough room. You may only be able to add in a few, leaving the rest behind.
Do you see the significance of keeping the most important things first?
Fill your jar with the most important things to you, then you add on the necessary things. Lastly, add in the little things, the ones that aren’t as important. It will all fit perfectly.
I relate to all of this, even before I had children. I already felt busy, then I added getting married and having children. I felt like I got busier, I added way more into my life and had more responsibilities.
Your life is even fuller, but in comparison, it’s just as full as it was before, right? No matter what stage you are at in life, it will always feel full. You will always be adding and taking away different things.
Take care of what matters. Take care of yourself. Take care of your relationships. Take care of your family, and everything else will fall into place.
Stay focused, and as you’re striving for and reaching your exponential greatness, I want you to remember that you need to take care of the most important things first.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus leo.