A professor of filosofy, standing before the audotorium, puts a five-liter jar on the table and fills it with 3cm big stones. Then he asks the audotorium: „Is the jar full?“
The students answer: „Yes.“
The professor grabs a jar of peas from under the table and pours them into the big jar with the stones. He shakes the jar a little and the peas all roll between the stones. Then he asks again: „Is the jar full?“
Again the students answer: „Yes.“
Now the professor lifts a box with sand on the table and starts to pour it into the jar. All the sand slides in between the stones and the peas. Again he asks the audotorium: „Is the jar full?“
The students answer: „Yes, now definitaly.“
The professor smiles, puts two cans of beer on The table, opens them and starts to pour the beer into the jar also. „And now“, says the professor, „I want to tell you that this jar is an analogue of your lives.“
„The strones are the most important things in life: family, health, friends, children. It is that which is enough to make your life full and worth living, even if you loose all else.
The peas are things which are only important for you personal: work, home, assets.
The sand is all the rest, all the small stuff. If I would have filled the jar first with sand, then there would not have been room for the stones and the peas.
That’s how it is in life: If you waste time on small things, then you’ll miss out on the more important things. Deal with stuff that makes you happy, play with your kids, make time for your partner, meet with friends. Then there will be time also for work, cleaning, car-wash etc.
Have priorities in life, first stones, then peas and then sand.“
The auditorium claps. Only one student raises his hands and asks with a sad voice:
"Professor, why did you waste the beer?"
The professor smiles: "I’m happy you ask. I poured the beer in the jar to proof that, no matter how tight your schedule is, no matter how many things you have to do, there is always time for „a beer“."