Old Post: Food For Thought # 1 - Giving Priority

Posted by lunastark at 12:50 pm on May 5th, 2006.
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GIVING PRIORITY
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I was reading a chapter of Stephen Covey's book (I think it was in First Things First)...there was this really wonderful lesson about PRIORITIZING.

The story began with a teacher bringing a bottle, some rocks, soil, sand, and water to school. At the end of the class, the teacher told them he had a little experiment for them. With the bottle at the middle of the desk, the teacher placed the huge rocks inside the bottle until it became full up to the rim.
He then asked the class that if he placed soil in the bottle...will it fit? The class said yes. Indeed, the soil slowly filled up the spaces between the rocks.

The teacher continued and asked the class if the sand would still fit in the bottle if he placed all of it in. The class nodded. Ofcourse, the sand was able to fill up even the smaller spaces betweenthe rocks as well.

Then, the teacher asked the class if he could still pour water in the bottle without it overflowing. The class told the teacher it he could. He poured all the water inside the bottle and it was absorbed by the soil and the sand between the spaces.

Finally, the teacher turned to the class and asked, "What is the moral of this story in real life?"

A student raised his hand that no matter how tight the schedule, there will always be time to fit in some more.

The teacher shook his head and pointed out to the student that if he put in the sand, soil, and water first....the huge rocks wouldn't be able to fit in the bottle anymore. He told the class that his litle experiment was actually a lesson in giving priorities to the most important (represented by the huge rocks) aspects of our lives before accomodating the little things.

It was a lesson in prioritizing those that matter in our lives.

In our fast paced society, very few would even bother to organize their schedule in such a way that it would matter in the long run. They are limited to senseless times tables and organizers that would only focus on the small things. For example, will the most expensive of organizers be able to foresee how long your marriage will last? I don't think so. It's how you invest your time to that person that will determine that aspect of your life. It is how you make your priorities straight.

I've had my share of giving priority to the trivial things in life more than what should really matter. Every mistake and wrong decision I made come with bad consequences. I've learned to make it a habit to internalize the lesson I have learned from these mistakes to direct myself to a better life and bring happiness to those that I love. ^_^


"The range of what we think and do is limited by what we fail to notice. And because we fail to notice what we fail to notice, there is little we can do to change; until we notice how failing to notice shapes our thoughts and deeds." - Stephen Covey, the 8th Habit, p. 43


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