Big Rocks First

For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his soul? Mark 8:36

We buried my niece this week. She was only 23. She died tragically in a car accident in the early hours of Saturday morning, April 6^th. A young doctor, she had graduated from medical school just 6 months ago. She seemed to have a full life ahead of her.

Times like these tend to make us pause and think about our lives. Times like these bring a sobering perspective.

What is life all about anyway?

The story is told of Alfred Nobel, the Swedish innovator who invented dynamite. When Alfred’s brother Ludvig died in 1888, a newspaper mistakenly published Alfred’s obituary instead, stating, “The merchant of death, Dr. Alfred Nobel, who became rich by finding ways to kill more people faster than ever before, died yesterday.”

Nobel was shocked. That was not the way he wanted to be remembered. In 1895 he set aside the bulk of his estate and used his fortune to establish a yearly prize in honour of those who excelled in some area of achievement or service to humanity. History no longer remembers Alfred Nobel as the merchant of death, but as the noble patron of the coveted Nobel Prizes.

Dr John C. Maxwell says, “People will summarize your life in one sentence. Pick it now.”

How do you want to be remembered? What do you want people to say about you when you are gone? What legacy are you leaving behind?

What is really important?

As the saying goes, “No one ever said on his death bed, “I wish I had spent more time at the office.’”

In life there will always be countless priorities clamouring for our attention.

The late Steven Covey used the Big Rocks illustration to demonstrate the need for us to keep First things First in our lives. He tells the story of a professor who was teaching a group of students. You can read it in the excerpt below.

One day a teacher was speaking to a group of students. He pulled out an extremely large jar and set it on a table. Then he produced some large rocks and 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 said, “Yes.” 

“Really?” he asked. “Let’s see.” He pulled out some gravel and dumped it in. He shook the jar, causing the pieces to work themselves down into the spaces between the big rocks. He asked the students again, “Is the jar full?” 

His class was catching on quickly. “Probably not,” one of them answered. 

“Very good!” he replied. He then 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. When he was finished he asked again, “Is this jar full?” 

“No!” the class shouted. 

“Excellent!” he replied. Then he grabbed a pitcher of water and poured it into the jar until it was filled to the brim. 

The teacher then looked up at the students and asked, “What is the point of this illustration?” 

One eager beaver 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 into it !”

“No,” the wise teacher replied, “that's not it. The main lesson is this: If you don't put the big rocks in first, you'll never get them all in.” 

"If you want to fit the big rocks into your life, you need to make sure to get them in first.  If you don't get the big rocks in first, you might not get them in at all!"  

In the demands of life we often take the important things for granted. We assume that our family and friends will always be there. We take no notice of our health unless something goes wrong. We think there will be time later in life to make things right with God.

Take time today to determine the Big Rocks in your life. 

The Big Rocks represent the important things in life – faith, family, health, using your gifts, developing your potential. The gravel and sand represent the less important things in life that tend to keep us busy and fill up our days– meetings, phone calls, emails, errands.

Decide what is important to you and determine to keep these as priorities in your life. Find some rocks, label them and keep them in a jar on your desk, your bedside table, the top of the fridge or wherever you will see them and be reminded to keep First Things First every day.

Plan your day to day life around the Big Rocks. You can always tell what is really important to you by your date book and your cheque book – how you spend your time and your money.

You only get one chance to live this life – make it count.

And remember, life is completely meaningless unless it is built on the Rock – Jesus Christ.

“That Rock was Christ.” 1 Corinthians 10:4

Money, money, money!

For as he thinks in his heart, so is he. Proverbs 23:7

Life doesn't give you what you want – it gives you who you are.

You have to grow and become the person who can occupy your destiny.

Evelyn Adams of New Jersey, USA, could be considered a very lucky lady. She won the New Jersey lottery not once, but twice – first netting $3.9 million in October 1985 and then, incredibly, another $1.4 million four months later. 27 years down the line however, Evelyn is broke and lives in a trailer park.

Evelyn’s is not an isolated case. There is also the story of William "Bud" Post who won $16.2 million in the Pennsylvania lottery in 1988 but now lives on Social Security and food stamps. Suzanne Mullins won $4.2 million in the Virginia lottery in 1993 and is now deeply in debt. Michael Carroll, a 19-year-old British garbage man, won £9.7 million (more than $15.5 million) in 2002. Nearly eight years later, he was broke and back to working as a garbage man. 16 year old Callie Rogers won £1.9 million ($3 million) in July 2003. In 2009, she was facing bankruptcy. To make ends meet, she started working three cleaning jobs and moved in with her mother.

And the list goes on and on.

On the other hand, we hear of stories of people like Walt Disney, the man who faced failure, repeated setbacks, disappointment and eventually went bankrupt only to turn it all around and create an annual $35 billion dollar company, Disneyland.  Donald Trump, who was 10 million dollars in debt and filed bankruptcy in 1997, turned it all around to become a billionaire and star of the hit Television series “The Apprentice”. Bill Bartmann, who lost $3.5 billion in paper wealth and his status as one of the richest people in the USA when his debt-collection company, Commercial Financial Services, collapsed in scandal 12 years ago, but is climbing back. The 2011 revenue of his current company was $15.4 million.

What makes the difference?

What makes the difference between a millionaire who makes a comeback and a lottery winner who descends back into their poverty, or worse?

The difference is in who they are.

A millionaire is a millionaire because that is who they are.

They think like a millionaire, they act like a millionaire.

A poor person is poor because that is who they are.

They think and behave in ways that perpetuate their poverty.

We see it in the lives of wealthy families where there is an inadequate succession plan. The patriarch of the family dies – the founder of the company, the one who worked hard to amass the wealth. The children or other family members take over and within a short while the company folds and all the fortune is gone.

The patriarch established the company because of who they were. The process of building up the company contributed to making them who they were. It shaped them into the type of person who could initiate, run, sustain and grow a company.

Many of us fantasize about winning the lottery or somehow getting a huge windfall of money. We believe that having more money would solve all our problems. All our troubles would be over! We would be happy, successful, fulfilled.

This however is very untrue. When the above lottery winners were interviewed, they said that winning the lottery was the worst thing that had ever happened to them. They said that having money had caused more problems than it had solved.

This is because there are no shortcuts in life.

Life does not give you what you want – it gives you who you are. You have to grow to become the person who can occupy your destiny.

If you want to be a millionaire, you have to grow in your knowledge about finances and how money works. If you want to move forward in your career, you have to advance in the skills, expertise and experience that are relevant to your field. If you want to have a great marriage and good friendships, you have to grow in your understanding of people and relationships. You have to take the time. You have to make the effort.

You have to invest in your personal growth.

What is your dream?

What areas in your life do you want to experience better results?

Are you willing to do what it takes to make your dream become a reality?

Learn more about growing to occupy your destiny in the next post.