One evening a philosophy professor came into his adult education class carrying a cardboard box and set it on the table in front of him. Without a word, he took a large mayonnaise jar out of the box and slowly, one by one, filled it with golf balls.
When he finished, he looked up and asked, “Is the jar full?” Without hesitation, the students all said that it was.
Next, he picked up a box of marbles and carefully poured them into the jar. As he poured, he shook the jar, and the marbles found their way into the open areas between golf balls until they came to the top.
“Is the jar full?” he asked, and again the students said it was.
Then the professor then took a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up all the remaining spaces.
“Now is the jar full?” he asked. The students all answered yes again.
Finally, he produced two cups of coffee from the box and poured their contents into the jar, filling the remaining empty spaces. The students laughed.
The professor then started his lesson. “This jar is your life. The golf balls are the important things: your family, your faith, your health, your friends, and your passions. If you lost everything else and only those things remained, your life would still be full.
"The marbles are the other things that matter, like your job, your house, and your car. The sand is everything else: the small stuff.
"If you put the sand into the jar first, there’s no room for the marbles or the golf balls. The same goes for life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff, you’ll never have room for the important things, the things that are critical to your happiness. Visit your parents. Play with your children. Get your medical checkups. Take your spouse out to dinner. Maybe even play another nine holes. There's always time to clean the house and fix the disposal.
"Take care of the golf balls first, the things that really matter. The rest is just sand."
A student raised her hand and asked, “OK, but what does the coffee mean?” The professor smiled. "Glad you asked. It's there to show you that no matter how full your life is, there's always room in it for a cup of coffee with a friend."
