Don't Stress the Small Stuff

Although I have graduated from college and have my MBA degree we never stop learning. I sat in on a class that my friend a professor at University of Maryland was teaching. We were going to have lunch and I wanted to get there early because the traffic is horrendous. He started his class with these eager young people thirsting for knowledge and I sat in the back of the auditorium and watched as he weaved his net of magic around them.

His lecture was on stress and the economy and how the students, their parents and their friends were coping with the recession. He spoke of a time when life feels as if it gives you too much to handle and twenty four hours is just not enough time to get through all of your problems.

Then he pulled out an empty mayonnaise jar, my friend has always been into visual effects. He also had 2 cups of coffee on the counter, some ping pong balls and a box of sand, and a box of pebbles.

He looked out to these eager young people and proceeded to fill the empty mayo jar full of the ping pong balls, when he couldn't put anymore in he asked the class if the jar was full. Most of the kids nodded their heads affirmatively. He picked up the bag of pebbles and small rocks from his desk and poured them into the jar. The pebbles started to fall into the crevices between the ping pong balls. Then he picked up the bag of sand and proceeded to pour that into the jar, the sand drifted down and surrounded the balls and pebbles and rocks filling in the empty space.

He again asked the class if they now thought that the jar was full. Some of these bright students shook their heads no. He kind of smiled and went on with his demonstration.
He then reached for the two cups of coffee that were sitting in the Styrofoam cups on his desk and poured the liquid into the mayo jar, effectively filling in the minute space left in the sand particles. He looked out at the kids and young adults and told them to picture the jar as a representation of their life. The ping pong balls were representatives of the important things that composed their existence, children, family, God, health, friends, the important aspects that make us what we are. He said that if everything else was lost and only the ping pong balls remained that our life would still be full.

He made an analogy to the pebbles and rocks as the other things that matter in our lives like the job, house, car and possession. The sand was everything else, all the small stuff. He said that if you put the sand into the jar first there would be no room for the pebbles, rocks or ping pong balls. You fill your life up worrying about all the small stuff you miss out on the important factors that are really there for you all along. The moral of his demonstration to me was take care to remember the important things in your life, all the rest is just filler.