The following is an excerpt from Simply + Fiercely Blog about Intentional living. I would have posted a link directly to it but I have a pet peeve with websites that are heavy on the adds and this one is. Also, this is the part that I really liked today.
I have become very protective of my time. My time is valuable. As a mom with four young children in the house, I am pulled in multiple directions and I can easily become overwhelmed. Some things that I would consider the sand or water even, are the extra-curricular activities of my kids. If I put too much importance on these, then I may not have room for our quality family time that I would consider one of my large rocks. If I’m being honest, this is how my jar is filled right now.
I started to learn how to say “no” to things 10 years ago and I still struggle with it. Only you know how many rocks, pebbles, sand, & water you can fit into your jar. You mustn’t worry yourself if the thing or person you are saying no to doesn’t understand. Your time is valuable. Your people need you to not be overwhelmed. Don’t take on so much water that you have no room for your rocks.
Here is the excerpt:
(https://www.simplyfiercely.com/4-creative-exercises-to-inspire-intentional-living/:)
FILL YOUR JAR
I don’t know about you, but when I think about my priorities, I rarely consider that I have limited time and energy. Unfortunately, the reality is life is about trade-offs; if you’re spending time doing one thing, it means you’re not doing something else.
It’s important that we make these choices intentionally – if we don’t we risk finding out down the road that we didn’t leave space for what matters most.
A helpful, visual way to define these priorities is with this ‘fill your jar’ exercise.
There’s a good chance you’ve heard a version of this story before but just in case you haven’t – here’s a quick summary (or you can watch the video instead.)
A professor walks into a classroom and presents a jar. He fills it with big rocks and then asks the class if the jar is full. They respond yes. Then he presents a bag of pebbles and pours it into the jar, filling the space between the rocks. Again he asks if the jar is full and the class responds yes. He repeats this process twice more, with sand and then water – until the jar is truly full.
The jar represents our lives; the big rocks are the most important things, the pebbles are slightly less important, and so on.
The lesson is we have limited time in our lives (just like there is limited space in the jar.) If you want to make sure you have time for the most important things (the big rocks) then you need to put them in your jar first. (Imagine if you started with the sand and pebbles – you’d never fit the rest in!)
