Rocks Pebbles Sand

      Rocks, Pebbles, and Sand

A philosophy professor once stood in front of his class with a large empty mayonnaise jar. He filled the jar with large stones and asked his students if the jar was full.

All his students in his class agreed that the jar was full.

Then he added small pebbles to the jar and jerked the jar so that the pebbles could disperse between the larger rocks. Then he asked again, “Is the jar full now?”The pupils agreed that the jar was still full.


The professor then poured sand into the jar to fill all the remaining space.


The pupils then agreed again that the jar was full.


Moral

In this story, the jar represents your life and rocks, pebbles and sand are the things that fill your life. Rocks represent the most important projects and things you have going on, such as spending time with your family and maintaining proper health. This means that if pebbles and sand were lost, the jar would still be full and your life would still have meaning.


Pebbles represent the things in your life that matter, but you could live without. Pebbles are certainly things that give meaning to your life (like your job, home, hobbies, and friendships), but they are not fundamental to having a meaningful life. These things often come and go and are not permanent or essential to your general well-being.


Finally, the sand represents the remaining filling things in your life and material goods. It could be little things like watching television, browsing through your favorite social media site, or running errands. These things don’t mean much to your life as a whole, and are probably only done to waste time or accomplish small tasks.

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