Nov 26 Tue
What is important in my life?
There are things in life that are important but not urgent; and vice versa, some things are urgent but not important. Our risk is systematically sacrificing important things to pursue urgent, often secondary tasks.
How can we prevent this danger? A story will help us. An elderly professor was to discuss effective time management. Standing before the students, he took a large empty jar from under the table. He also took a dozen large stones, the size of tennis balls, which he placed delicately, one by one, into the jar until it was full. When they couldn't fit in anymore, he asked the students, "Do you think the glass jar is full?" They all replied, "Yes!" He waited a moment and insisted, "Are you sure?"
He bent down again and took a box full of gravel, which he poured over the large stones, shaking the glass slightly so that it filled the spaces between them. "Is the glass jar full this time?" he asked. More cautiously, the students began to understand and answered, "Maybe not yet." "Good!" replied the old professor.
He bent down again and this time took out a small bag of sand that he carefully poured into the jar. The sand filled all the spaces between the stones and gravel. He asked again, "Is the jar full now?" And everyone, without hesitation, answered, "No!" Indeed, the old man replied, and, as they expected, he took the jug that was on the table and poured water into the glass to the brim.
He then asked, "What is the great truth that this experiment shows us?" The boldest one, thinking about the topic of the course (time management), replied, "It shows that even when our agenda is full, with a little goodwill, you can always add more commitments."
"No," replied the professor; "it's not that. What the experiment shows is something else: if you don't put the large stones in the glass first, you will never get them to fit in later."
He continued: "What are the big stones, the priorities, in your life? Health? Family? Friends? The important thing is to put these big stones first in your agenda. If you prioritize thousands of other small things (gravel, sand), you will fill your life with trifles and never find time to devote to what is truly important. So don't forget to ask yourself often, 'What are the big stones in my life?' and put them at the top of your agenda."
To the "big stones" mentioned by the professor—health, family, friends—we must add two more, which are the greatest of all: the two greatest commandments: to love God and to love one's neighbor. Truly, loving God, more than a commandment, is a privilege. If one day we were to discover this, we would not stop thanking God for the fact that He commands us to love Him, and we would want to do nothing but cultivate this love.
Excerpts from Raniero Cantalamessa
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