Let’s clarify something.  Stop yourself for a moment.  Look into the future.  What do you see?  Where are you going?  What is it that you want out of your life?  What are your dreams?  What are your goals?

I met somebody few years ago who was extremely good and disciplined about his nutrition.  I asked him how in the world he got to this level.  He told me that he was diagnosed with cancer, and he decided to fight and to beat it.

His answer was extremely powerful.  Made me realize a lot of things, and one of them:   We all cruise through life until we get hit by a crisis.  Why wait?  Why do we need to get hit to get a reminder of where we’re going?

Our lives are filled with so much clutter and distractions that stop us, that makes us deviate.  We get lost in the jungle.  We don’t always know what we’re doing.  We wake up in the morning, just cruising through the day.  Ask yourself, do you feel fulfilled when you go to bed?  Most of us will say no.

There’s a perspective that was given by one of my teachers.  He said, “Imagine a person would get power to resurrect the dead.  He would go to the cemetery and awaken the dead, and he’d give them a condition.  He would say, ‘You have 12 hours until you all collapse again.’  What would they do?  Do you think they would run to a pub to have a drink?  Do you think they would go to watch their favorite show?  Or maybe they would ask to go to their office and perform some tasks?  Or maybe, maybe they would decide to go see their family or do something very meaningful till the end of times.”

There’s another story which most of you know, but it’s good to remind of it until it’s engraved in our brain.  Once a teacher brought a glass jar to the class, and he told the students to pay attention.  He took some stones and filled the jar to the top, and he asked the students, “Is the jar full?”  The students said, “Yes.”  He said, “Really?”  He took some pebbles and filled the jar to the top with pebbles, and he asked, “How about now?”  The students agreed that the jar is full.  The teacher said, “Not really.”  He took a pile of sand and started to fill on top of the pebbles and stones, shook the jar until the sand went all the way in, filled it to the top, and asked the students again, “Is the jar full?”  Students agree.  Teacher took the pitcher of water and filled the jar all the way to the top with water.

He said, “The jar is your life.  The stones are most important, big things in your life, very valuable, like your health, like your spouse, your family.  The pebbles, things that create meaning for your life.  That’s your work, your friendships, your car, a house, etc.  The sand and water in life represent reading a newspaper, watching TV, running some errands, things that don’t have real meaning.”

So he said, “Imagine if I would start filling the jar with pebbles, with sand, or water.  Do you think I would be able to fit any stones in there?”

So most of us in life have our priorities not straight.  We need to make it clearer.  Stones, pebbles, sand with water.  If we just hold on to that idea, our life would be more valuable.  We’d bring more meaning to our life.  We would go to sleep feeling fulfilled, and, of course, by that we would become an example for everybody else, and the whole world would transform.