The last two days of the working week I had a "Project management" training at work and in one of the exercises we had (in the form of a social game designed by the American PMI - Project management institute), we came across a situation that reminded me of another training, bound by time.
Namely, it was necessary for me to "sacrifice" a certain amount of time from my vacation, so that another project of my colleague from the same company (but in a different sector) could continue with its development...
Probably many of you know what is the most valuable resource in our lives, very limited, without the possibility of predicting and knowing how much more there is in our life...
Time.
I remembered a professor's lecture that I watched years ago on Youtube, which was quoted by a mentor who gave me time management training...
In that film, the professor placed a large jar, several tennis balls, a dozen marbles and a sandbag in front of the students.
He dropped tennis balls to the top of the jar and asked the students if the jar was full.
Everyone confidently answered "Yes".
Then he inserted marbles to the top of the jar, which filled the gap between the tennis balls.
He repeated the question, "Is the jar full now", and the students answered "Yes?" with a little less confidence.
Finally, he poured sand into the jar to the top, which entered the remaining space next to the balls and marbles.
He shook the jar so that there was not even a millimeter of free space in it.
He asked again: "Is the jar full now?"
They again answered "Yes".
He smiled and told them the story.
Imagine that the jar represents your life. Tennis balls represent the most important things in your life: your family, health, friends, your passions.
Marbles are other important things: your job, house, your car...
While sand is everything else. All the small and minor things...
If you filled the jar with sand first, there would be no space for marbles or balls in the jar...
The same as in life.
If you spend your time on unimportant things in your life, you will not have time for important and big things...
If you do not set priorities in your life that will ultimately make you happy and satisfied, you will not have where and when to place your tennis balls... Your life will be filled with sand.
When the students agreed with what the professor said by nodding their heads, he was tearing them apart by pouring #Beer into the jar.
"So what's that professor, what does that mean?"
"It means that in life, whatever you do and whatever stage you are in, you have time to drink beer with your friends," said the professor and laughed...
Today during the day I set aside some time and took care of the flowers on my terrace.
I transplanted orchids.
While I was putting pieces of tree bark and coconut peat into the pots, I first put in larger pieces of bark that I found on a fallen tree the other day, then smaller pieces and finally fine peat.
Then I remembered this story with the jar and the sand 🙂
I will post the orchid transplant story in #HiveGarden in a few days, because I want to show the complete process...
Now I wanted to share a thought myself...
As someone's sand, it can threaten/stop/contaminate someone else's marbles or even tennis balls...
The flowers that are on my terrace are my hobby, someone would say it's a totally stupid thing and they would probably be right (if the flowers in the pot wither, buy new ones...🙂).
But I like to grow it, and when it withers, I get sad.
That's why I decide to spend a little of my time this weekend and extend the life of the flowers on my terrace (which is completely in my hands).
Just like in the training, which I mentioned above, I decided to "take" some time off from my project, so that the other project could continue its life.
Even though I could, I wasn't going to let my little time affect anyone's life…
I predicted the risks and the time I would lose, how to make up for it later, so that my colleague would continue his task, just as I am in , ready to spend part of my time for the benefit of others.