The Theory That You Must Prioritize What You Want to Do in Life, or You Will Never Get to Do It

Hello, this is Mr. T.

First, here is the conclusion.
If you don't try the things you want to do, they will never begin,
so if you don't prioritize starting them,
you won't be able to do them even if you try later.

This is a story from an overseas university that I really like.
It actually happened.

A professor asked his students, "If you compare life to a jar,"
and then actually put golf balls, pebbles, sand, and beer into a jar in that order,
asking the students, "Is this jar full?"

By the time he put in the pebbles and sand,
the students were like, "What is this professor doing? lol"
After he finished pouring the beer, the professor said:

Please think of this jar as representing your life.

The professor continued.

Golf ballsare what I want you to think of as
the most important thingslike family, friends, and health.

Pebblesare
things like your car or your job,things that are somewhat important.

Sandiseverything else, the trivial things.

Before they knew it,
the students' expressions had turned serious.

The professor's story continued.

If you put the sand in first,
there won't be any room for the golf balls or pebbles.


It's the same with life.


If you spend too much time on unimportant things,
you won't have time for what is truly important.


I want you to organize what is necessary for your own happiness.
Prioritize the golf balls. Set your priorities.



Because the world is full of trivial things.

At this point, one student raises their hand.

Professor, what does the beer represent?

The "lol" atmosphere from when the professor started talking
is no longer in the classroom.
The students realize that the professor is trying to
sincerely teach them a life lesson using the order of items in the jar,
and a gentle, calm smile spreads throughout the room.

Then, the professor smiles and answers.

Thank you for asking.

The beer means that no matter how full (or busy) you seem,
there is always time to have a wonderful beer with friends.
That's what it means. (Grins)

In the end, you think, "Wow, that professor is cool!" but
what is the serious "lesson" that can be learned from this episode?

• Can a jar (=life) hold more things than you'd expect?

• Should you just try your best to pack as much as you can into a jar (=life)?
  
  

Suppose you changed the order of what you put in the jar from the reverse of "golf balls → pebbles → sand → beer" to "beer → sand → pebbles → golf balls"; would the golf balls you put in last actually fit in the jar?
The golf balls wouldn't fit, would they?

In other words, the lesson is that
if you don't do what you want to prioritize first in life, you will never get to do it

.

A better future won't just come your way on its own, so you have to pull it toward you yourself.

I believe that the key to pulling it toward you is the mindset of
"doing what you want to prioritize first."

• Sacrificing yourself to conform to others

• Peer pressure from the company to sacrifice yourself for the sake of the group, under the guise of a sense of belonging
  
  

You don't need to worry about things like that. Or rather, you don't need to worry about it; if you don't prioritize what you want to try doing, you won't be able to do it later even if you want to, so you just have to do it. That's what I mean.

Even if you are currently sidelined at your company, disliked by someone, a busy housewife (or househusband) trying to start a side job, or even if you were a NEET, that might be

"a chance to do what you've decided you want to prioritize first"
. It's like a chance to decide for yourself what is right and what is fun.

If you are in your 30s now, I find that incredibly enviable lol.
That's because you have so much more time in your life than I do, having only just changed direction now that I'm nearing 50.

I seriously want the younger generation and those working hard on side jobs just like me to prioritize their own lives without taking the long way around like I did.

Mr. T