The BIG ROCKS of our lives

"One day, an expert in time management was speaking to a
group ofbusiness students and, to drive home a point,
used an illustration those students will never forget.

As he stood in front of the group of high-powered
overachievers he said, "Okay, time for a quiz" and he
pulled out a one-gallon, wide-mouth mason jar and set it
on the table in front of him.He also produced about a
dozen fist-sized rocks and carefullyplaced 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 yelled, "Yes." The time management expert replied,
"Really?"

He reached under the table and pulled out a bucket of
gravel.He dumped some gravel in and shook the jar
causing pieces of gravel to work themselves down into
the spaces between the big rocks. He then asked the group
once more, "Is the jar full?" By this time the class was
on to 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 the jar and it went into all
of the spaces left between the rocks and the gravel. Once more
he asked the question, "Is this jar full?" "No!" the class
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 at the
class 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 in 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, time with your loved ones, your
faith, your education, your dreams, a worthy cause, teaching
or mentoring others? Remember to put these BIG ROCKS in first or
you'll never get them in at all.

So,tonight, or in the morning, when you are reflecting on this
short story, ask yourself this question: What are the 'big rocks'
in my life? Then, put those in your jar first.

Being Great

There is Greatness all around you - Use it

There are many people who could be Olympic champions, all who have never tried. I’d estimate five million people could have beaten me in the pole vault the years I won it, at least five million. Men who were stronger, bigger and faster than I was, could have done it, but they never picked up a pole, never made the feeble effort to pick their legs off the ground to try to get over the bar.

Greatness is all around us. It’s easy to be great because great people will help you. What is fantastic about all the conventions I go to is that the greatest in
the business will come and share their ideas, their methods and their techniques with everyone else. I have seen the greatest salesmen open up and show young salesmen exactly how they did it. They don’t hold back. I have also found it true
in the world of sports.

I’ll never forget the time I was trying to break Dutch Warmer Dam’s record. I was about a foot below his record, so I called him on the phone.

I said, "Dutch, can you help me? I seem to have levelled off. I can’t get any higher." He said, "Sure, Bob, come on up to visit me and I’ll give you all I got."
I spent three days with the master, the greatest pole vaulter in the world. For three days, Dutch gave me everything that he’d seen. There were things
that I was doing wrong and he corrected them. To make a long story short,
I went up eight inches. That great guy gave me the best that he had.
I’ve found that sports champions and heroes willingly do this just to help you become great, too.

John Wooden, the great UCLA basketball coach, has a philosophy that every day he is supposed to help someone who can never reciprocate. That’s his obligation.

When in college, working on his masters thesis on scouting and defensive football, George Allen wrote up a 30-page survey and sent it out to the great coaches in the country. Eighty-five percent answered it completely!

Great people will share. Great people will tell you their secrets, Look for them, call them on the phone or buy their books. Go where they are, get around them, talk to them. It is easy to be great when you get around great people.

(By Bob Richards, Olympic Athlete)

Excellence

A man once visited a temple under construction where he saw a sculptor making an idol of God. Suddenly he noticed a similar idol lying nearby. Surprised, he asked the sculptor, "Do you need two statues of the same idol?" "No," said the sculptor without looking up, "We need only one, but the first one got damaged at the last stage."

The gentleman examined the idol and found no apparent damage. "Where is the damage?" he asked. "There is a scratch on the nose of the idol." said the sculptor, still busy with his work. "Where are you going to install the idol?" The sculptor replied that it would be installed on a pillar twenty feet high. "If the idol is that far, who is going to know that there is a scratch on the nose?" the gentleman asked.

The sculptor stopped his work, looked up at the gentleman, smiled and said, "I will know it."

The desire to excel is exclusive of the fact whether someone else appreciates it or not. “Excellence” is a drive from inside, not outside. Excel at a task today - not necessarily for someone else to notice but for your own satisfaction.

Very Inspiring..very true

Vanilla Ice Cream Logic

A complaint was received by the Pontiac Division of General Motors: "This is the second time I have written to you, and I don’t blame you for not answering me, because I sounded crazy, but it is a fact that we have a tradition in our family of ice cream for dessert after dinner each night. But the kind of ice cream varies so, every night, after we’ve eaten, the whole family votes on which kind of ice cream we should have and I drive down to the store to get it. It’s also a fact that I recently purchased a new Pontiac and since then my trips to the store have created a problem. You see, every time I buy a vanilla ice cream, when I start back from the store my car won’t start. If I get any other kind of ice cream, the car starts just fine. I want you to know I’m serious about this question, no matter how silly it sounds: “What is there about a Pontiac that makes it not start when I get vanilla ice cream, and easy to start whenever I get any other kind?” "

The Pontiac President was understandably skeptical about the letter, but sent an engineer to check it out anyway. The latter was surprised to be greeted by a successful, obviously well educated man in a fine neighborhood. He had arranged to meet the man just after dinner time, so the two hopped into the car and drove to the ice cream store. It was vanilla ice cream that night and, sure enough, after they came back to the car, it wouldn’t start. The engineer returned for three more nights. The first night, they got chocolate. The car started. The second night, he got strawberry. The car started. The third night he ordered vanilla. The car failed to start. Now the engineer, being a logical man, refused to believe that this man’s car was allergic to vanilla ice cream. He arranged, therefore, to continue his visits for as long as it took to solve the problem. And toward this end he began to take notes: he jotted down all sorts of data: time of day, type of gas used, time to drive back and forth etc.In a short time, he had a clue: the man took less time to buy vanilla than any other flavor. Why?

The answer was in the layout of the store. Vanilla, being the most popular flavor, was in a separate case at the front of the store for quick pickup. All the other flavors were kept in the back of the store at a different counter where it took considerably longer to check out the flavor. Now, the question for the engineer was why the car wouldn’t start when it took less time. Once time became problem, not the vanilla ice cream. Eureka!

The engineer quickly came up with the answer:”vapor lock”. It was happening every night; but the extra time taken to get the other flavors allowed the engine to cool down sufficiently to start. When the man got vanilla,the engine was still too hot for the vapour lock to dissipate.

Even crazy looking problems are sometimes real and all problems seem to be simple only when we find the solution with a cool thinking. Don’t just say its “IMPOSSIBLE” without putting a sincere effort... Observe the word “IMPOSSIBLE” carefully... You can see “I’M POSSIBLE”...