Are Your Goals On The Rocks?

Life presents us with a never ending stream of challenges and opportunities. Some of us see them as that. Some of us would see them as diversions. Others would see them as things we want to do and things we don’t. Yet even if we know exactly what we have set our minds on as being our life’s key objectives, these day to day challenges can unwittingly divert us. They can make adhering to these objectives more or less attractive to us. Why? Because some of our self-defined aims are much more appealing than others in our list!

I want to make a simple point here about the vital importance of respecting the key aspects of our life from today and reminding ourselves about the way we want to live it.

Let us assume we know actually or intuitively what our core priorities in life are. Now in our minds, let us equate these key features of our life, say, our partner, our family, our health, our recreation, our career, to fist size pebbles.

And now let us also picture the fun things, the frivolous but enjoyable things, the temptations, our preferred activities as represented by small stones and grains of sand, and some even water.

Now listen and reflect on the significance of this old illustration once offered to lucky students on how to respect those priorities in life.

A tutor standing before his large group of students, takes a dust sheet off the long table separating them. It reveals a substantial and tall glass vase, along with small piles of small stones, shingle and dry fine sand, and finally a jug of water.

Without explanation, he begins placing the large pebbles inside the glass vase one by one until he can only catch them as they roll off the top of the full vase.

He then asks if the vase is full. Some say it is. Others say it is not and ask him to put shingle in. All watch as it tumbles down between the pebbles.

He asks again and again some say it is, while others urge him to put the sand in. Dry and fine, it too can be seen soon filtering down between the pebbles.

The question comes again and finally the tutor is pressed to add the water in the jug. He pours it in.

At last, the consensus is that the Vase is full.

So the students are asked what it proves. Again there is a consensus: it proves, they agree, that no matter how busy you are, you can get more into Life.

The tutor shakes his head and says, “Oh! No! It doesn’t prove that! What it proves is that if you don’t put the pebbles in first, then you can’t get all of them to go in afterwards.”   

Gerry Neale

Author of Cognitive Novel: Squaring Circles
More information at www.squaringcircles.co.uk 
Available in paperback from www.amazon.co.uk