Position The Big Stones First
2018 is almost at its brim and a NEW YEAR is unveiling. I am sure many of us are busy making New Year resolutions which may not last even for a week or ten days. I’m yet to make an assessment on my achievements or failures of the current year, but as I was contemplating today a bit on what I have done during the last one year, an important aspect that came to my mind was recognizing the value of time.
#motivational #timemanagement
Author : Reji Varghese
Reji M Varghese is a Post graduate Electrical Engineer from MANIT Bhopal (India) with his Under Graduate Engineering degree from NIT Rourkela (India). In Dec 2003 he established the company ADONAI. He has overall responsibility for creating, planning, implementing and integrating the strategic direction of the organization.
2018 is almost at its brim and a NEW YEAR is unveiling. I am sure many of us are busy making New Year resolutions which may not last even for a week or ten days. I’m yet to make an assessment on my achievements or failures of the current year, but as I was contemplating today a bit on what I have done during the last one year, an important aspect that came to my mind was recognizing the value of time. I was trying to put myself in various situations to discover or discern the significance of time.
If you ask a student who was not able to pass in a class, he knows how valuable ONE YEAR is…
If you ask a mother who delivered a prematured child she would know how important ONE MONTH is…
My friend Mr.Rajesh Bhatya being a journalist knows how important the value of ONE WEEK for the editor of a Weekly magazine.
Value of ONE HOUR is deeply recognised by a person who is at his deathbed waiting for a loved one who is yet to visit.
I understood the value of ONE MINUTE while I was talking to a person who was sitting beside me at New Delhi railway station who missed his train to Bangalore as he was caught up in a traffic jam and rushed onto the platform only to see the last compartment of his train moving out of the platform.
Ask an athlete who lost his medal, he would tell us the cost of a SECOND or MILLISECOND.
Time is a very important aspect in every one of our lives as we are all caged in the frame of time. Time to wake up, time to go to work, time to eat, time for family and recreation and so on. If we look at the larger frame of time it starts with childhood, then to the teens to grow as an adult then to the middle age and finally to the old age or end times of our lives. As we all live in such time frames, it is very essential that, to make the most of our time it is imperative to keep our priorities right.
I remember an illustration that was done in front of us, while I was attending a workshop on Time Management as a part of my Life Coach Certification process.
A transparent pot with a wide mouth was kept on the table and the speaker brought a dozen of stones which were of the size of a fist and he started placing them in the pot one by one. The pot was filled to the top and there was no more space for any more stones and he asked “Is the pot full ?” and all of us said “YES”.
He took out another bag which was filled with gravel and put some of them into the pot and shook it so that the small pieces of stones would fit into the empty spaces between the big stones.
The speaker came up with the question again “Is the pot full?”
One of our class fellows said “may be not…”
He gave a smile and pulled out a bag of sand and poured the sand into the pot to fill the space between the big stones and gravel.
Again he asked “Is the pot full..? And all of us together yelled “NO”.
The speaker smiled and pulled out a mug of water and poured it until the pot was filled to the top.
Then he asked the entire class “What do you understand from this illustration?”
Rishi, one of our class fellows raised his hand and said “It doesn’t matter how packed your schedule is, one can always fit more things into it, if attempted hard”
“NO” the speaker said “The actual meaning and truth of this illustration is “UNLESS YOU POSITION THE BIG STONES FIRST, YOU MAY NEVER BE ABLE TO PUT THEM IN”
As we step into the New Year, let’s ensure to place the BIG STONES first.
Another ten days to the NEW YEAR….it is the time to start grabbing the BIG STONES so that they are placed first.