Most of us are very busy. There are a lot of pressures around juggling work, school, managing projects, attending events, and assisting family members and friends. We care for our health, our community, and our world.
Some folks are not as busy. Retired and facing the opposite scenario – there is time to fill. One way or another, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, time is consumed with various activities.
Recently I was sharing the following story with one of my clients and thinking about the value of story telling. Somewhere in my travels I learned that listening to stories can boost the immune system. And reading stories makes us feel good, too. Also, stories can help us understand life. In gaining a greater understanding, we can be more effective in organizing the time and tasks in our lives in more meaningful ways.
So here’s the story: Once upon a time, there was a high school philosophy teacher who taught a valuable life lesson about time and tasks using various sized rocks. He had his 30 students participate in an unusual activity. Instead of sitting at their desks while he lectured to them, he invited them to come into a lab.
There the students found the teacher had laid out various materials for them to use to carry out a project. There were 30 sets of rocks of various sizes sitting on big cookie sheets. Next to them were 30 big glass mason jars. In various locations around the room there were buckets of sand and water.
Mystified, the students looked at the various materials, then to the teacher, wondering what he was up to. The teacher told his students the project was a simple one: put as many of the rocks into the jars as possible. He told them to have fun and experiment.
To be continued next week. 🙂