The Empty Jar Leadership Story

A man stood in front of a group of high powered overachievers and said, "Okay time for a quiz." Then he pulled out a one gallon wide mouthed mason jar and set it on a table in front of them. Then he produced about a dozen fist sized rocks and carefully placed them one at a time into the jar. When the jar was filled to the top and no more rocks would fit inside he asked, "Is this jar full?" Everyone in the class said yes. Then he said "Really?" He reached under the table and pulled out a bucket of gravel. Then he dumped some gravel in and shook the jar causing pieces of gravel to work themselves down into the spaces between the rocks. Then he asked the group once more, "Is the jar full?" By this time the group was onto him. "Probably not," one of them answered. "Good", he replied. He reached under the table and brought out a bucket of sand. He started dumping the sand in, and it went into all the spaces left between the rocks and the gravel. Once more he asked the question, "Is this jar full?" "No!" the group shouted. Once again he said, "Good." Then he grabbed a pitcher of water and began to pour it in until the jar was filled to the brim. Then he looked up at the class and asked, "What is the point of this illustration?" One person out of the group raised his hand and said, "The point is that no matter how full your schedule is, if you try really hard, you can always fit some more things into it." "No," the speaker replied, "that's not the point. The truth this illustration teaches us is: If you don't put the big rocks in first, you'll never get them in at all." What are the "Big Rocks" in your life?

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