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  Volume 4 - Issue 07 JULY 2006
 
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LIFE MANAGEMENT


This story is about priorities.

 

An expert in time management was speaking to a group of business students, and to drive home a point used an illustration those students will never forget. As he stood in front of the group of high-powered overachievers, he said, "Okay, time for a test," and pulled out a bucket and set it on the table in front of him. He also produced about a dozen fist-sized rocks and carefully placed them, one at a time, into the bucket.

When the bucket was filled to the top and no more rocks would fit inside, he asked, "Is this bucket full?" Everyone in the class replied, "Yes." The expert countered, "Really?" He reached under the table and pulled out a bag of gravel. He put some gravel in and shook the bucket, causing the pieces of gravel to work themselves down into the spaces between the big rocks.

He then asked the group once more, "Is the bucket full?" By this time the class was cautious. "Maybe not," one of them answered. "Good," he replied, and reaching under the table he brought out a bucket of sand.

He started putting the sand into the bucket and it fell into all the spaces left between the rocks and the gravel. Once more he asked the question, "Is the bucket full?" "No," the class responded. Then he grabbed a jar of water and began to pour it in until the bucket was filled to the brim. Then he looked at the class and asked, "What is the lesson of this illustration?" One student raised his hand and said, "The point is, no matter how full your schedule is, if you try really hard you can always fit some more things in it."

"No", the speaker replied, "That's not the point. The truth this illustration teaches us is this: If you don't put the big rocks in first, you will never get them in at all." It is important for us to identify the BIG ROCKS in our lives.

 

 

So what are the big rocks of our life? Spirit of selfless service, Love for God and Adherence to Virtue. Often we put ourselves first, then society and lastly God.

And then we wonder why we are unhappy. Swami turns this around and tells us to put God first, then society and finally ourselves – last. In SAI – Sai is first, Association is second and I, the Individual is last. Only then will we be eternally happy.

Only in an individual who is morally strong does the human personality find its best expression, Swami said on one occasion.

Illustrations: Vamsi Aditya, SSSIHL

Heart2Heart Team

 

 


 
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Vol 4 Issue 07 - JULY 2006
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