A Jar, Some Sand, and A lot of Rocks

A wise, old teacher placed three items in front of her students on a table—a jar, a bag full of sand, and a large handful of rocks.   The teacher peered over her reading glasses at the students and issued a challenge to her class.  The challenge was to try and fit all of the rocks and all of the sand in to the clear jar.  The young students doubted it would all cram in to the small jar but they could tell their teacher was serious and wanted them to try.  So the class quickly followed their first inclinations and poured the sand easily in to the jar and then tried to force in the rocks.  They soon discovered they were right as they could only force about half of the rocks in to the jar on top of sand.  The teacher then emptied the jar and asked if the class would like to try again however the students insisted it was impossible.  After all they had tried it once and it didn’t work so why even attempt to do it again?

To the amazement of her class, the teacher disappointingly said, “students, both the rocks and the sand can fit in the jar.” She could tell the students still doubted her so she proved it by first squeezing in the rocks, which nearly filled the entire jar, and then she carefully dumped in the sand which slowly filled the spaces and cracks between the rocks.  The students were surprised and most of them took notice that there was even a little bit of room to spare at the top of the jar when all of the sand had settled. 

I’m sure the student’s learned some valuable lessons that day.  I enjoy this object lesson because I believe it can teach us so many things.    Today I’d like to share three of my favorites.    

#1  Raise our Vision

Many times we observe a difficult challenge or task at hand and we immediately believe it will be impossible to accomplish.  This lack of vision hurts our ability to be successful.  Often times because of this self-doubt, we quickly fail to put forth our best effort because we’ve already decided the challenge is too difficult.  Much like the students believed from the very beginning that the task at hand was impossible and then quickly proved it by pouring the sand in to the jar first, we often put forth a not so well thought out and no so valiant effort to show we at least tried and to prove to ourselves and others that in fact the task was impossible.  Rather than face challenges in this way, we need to raise our vision and see the many possibilities that surround us despite the challenges we face.  We need to have the attitude of “I can do this!” 

#2  Put First thing First

Many times we are unsuccessful in life because we fail to prioritize appropriately.  Rather than starting with the rocks and then moving on to the sand, we do the opposite which causes a lack of success and satisfaction in our life.  When we learn to prioritize and focus first on those things that matter most, we always seem to find time to add the sand.  Though it is not easy and requires a great deal of discipline, let’s start with the rocks in our life and then move to the sand. 

#3 Try, try again

The students were reluctant to try again once they failed.  We too are like this.  However, if we would take the time to reevaluate the situation and try again and again, we would find much more success and satisfaction in our lives.  At it has been said, it is impossible to defeat someone who never gives up.  If we keep trying, eventually we will succeed.          

I love this object lesson and have taken an opportunity to use it when instructing others because of the powerful lessons that can be learned from it.  Raising our vision, putting first things first, and always trying again are lessons that if applied will lead us to greater success.