Mayonnaise Jar and a Beer

A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him: a very large, empty mayonnaise jar, golf balls, aquarium pebbles, sand, and a beer.When class began, he picked up the mayonnaise jar and began to fill it with the golf balls. When every last golf ball was in place, he asked his students if the jar was full. They all agreed that it was. He thin picked up the bag of aquarium pebbles and poured them in the jar, shaking it slightly. He asked again if the jar was full. Again, they agreed that it was in fact full. Next the professor dumped in the sand, and it filled up everything other space left in the jar. He asked one more time if the jar was full, and the students abashedly agreed once more that it was. The professor then opened the top on the beer, and poured its contents into the jar effectively filling all possible empty space. The students giggled at their professors antics, and after the laughter subsides, the professor said, "Now, I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life. The golf balls are the important things, your family, your children, your health, your friends and your passions. If everything else was lost, and only they remained, your life would still be full. The pebbles are other things that matter, like your job, your house and your car. The sand is everything else - the little things. If you put the sand into the jar first, there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls. The same goes for life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff, you will never have room for all the things that are important to you. Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. Spend time with your children, your parents, visit with your grandparents. Take your spouse out to dinner. Play another 18. There will always be time to clean the house and fix the disposal. Take care of your golf balls first - those are the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand. One of the students then asked what the beer represented. The professor smiled and said, "I'm glad you asked. The beer just shows you that no matter how full your life may seem, there is always room for a beer with a friend."


When life gets going, the old saying holds true, because the going does indeed get tough. Things almost never turn out the way you want them to, or the way you had them planned. In the life of a broke college student, you plan for that money that you get for your monthly budget to last for the whole month, but when it turns up that your car breaks down, or you need groceries to avoid the dining hall olestra grease, then it kind of makes the comic book "POOF!" seem real. As the money goes down, the stress goes up. When the homework goes up, so does the stress, and as the semester winds down, the stress before finals takes its last hike up. But you know what, this philosophy professor might have known a thing or two, because when you feel that stress sinking down on your shoulders, no matter its cause, if you stop, slow down and remember the advice in this story, it will make you feel better. Because thinking about life like this is a fantastic simplifier. The world just gets easier to deal with when you think of life as big things and little things, especially when you slow down enough to put them all in the right order. So always remember, life is hard. No one ever said that it would be easy - they just promised that it would be worth it.