The Unfillable Box

A person once asked a wise man: “Why is it that even though I try my best, I still feel unsatisfied?” Instead of answering, the wise man took a box and placed it on the table. He then put in several large rocks until the box appeared to be full. “Can anything else fit?” the wise man asked. The person shook his head. The wise man then poured in a bag of small pebbles. The pebbles filled the gaps between the large rocks. Finally, he added a bag of sand and then a pitcher of water. Surprisingly, the box could still hold much more. The wise man asked, “What did you see?” The person replied, “That if you use the space wisely, you can fit more things in.” The wise man shook his head. “What truly matters is what you put in first.” “If you had filled it with sand from the beginning, you wouldn’t have been able to fit the large rocks later.” The person pondered for a long time. He suddenly realized that he was busy with work, replying to messages, and handling trivial matters every day, always feeling short on time. There were many things he wanted to do, but he always postponed them to tomorrow. Perhaps it wasn't that he had too little time, but that unimportant things had already filled his life. We always say we'll spend time with family when we have free time, travel when we have money, or start when we're ready. But life rarely suddenly frees up a large chunk of time for us to do everything we want at once. Some things aren't unimportant; you just haven't prioritized them. Instead of worrying every day about what you lack, why not ask yourself first: If you could only accomplish three things today, which three would you truly not want to miss?