How to Overcome the Hurdles of Life
How to Overcome and Prevent the Hurdles of Life
Why do cars break down right when our bills are the highest? Or, why does a prospective job opportunity fall through at the last minute? The obstacles of life come in all shapes and sizes, but they don’t seem to discriminate who they bless with their presence.
It just seems like there’s no avoiding the hurdles of life. However, there are certain patterns that tend to invite challenges into our lives. By working on these, the challenges will occur less often, their damage will be softened, and the burdens will be lighter.
A Story About Time
I’ll share a quick story for my first point.
A professor stood before his class with some items in front of him. When class began, he wordlessly picked up a large empty jar and proceeded to fill it with rocks about 2” in diameter, eventually topping it off.
He then asked the students if the jar was full? They agreed that it was.
The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them in to the jar. He shook the jar slightly. The pebbles, of course, rolled into the open areas between the rocks, making the students laugh.
He asked his students again if the jar was full? They agreed that yes, it was.
The professor then picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up the remaining spaces.
“Now,” said the professor, “I want you to recognize that this is your life.
The rocks are the important things—your family, your partner, your health, your children—anything that is so important to you that if it were lost, you would be nearly destroyed.
The pebbles are the other things in life that matter, but on a smaller scale. The pebbles represent things like your job, house, or car.
The sand is everything else, the ‘small stuff’.
If you put the sand or the pebbles into the jar first, there is no room for the rocks.
The same goes for your life. If you spend all your energy and time on the small stuff, material things, you will never have room for the things that are truly most important.
Take care of the rocks in your life first; the rest is just sand,” he advised.
If you think about it, many challenges in life arise because we don’t allocate our time well. We get caught working too late at the office, wasting it on fruitless activities or overbooking ourselves. Improving this one area of life will go a long way to helping you with overcoming the next challenge.
