Hello awesome people. Welcome to another article about achieving your full potential.

There is a brief story about how we can use our time wisely so we can have a balanced life.
There are multiple variations of this story. Its author is unknown and its meaning is something we oftentimes miss from our sight, even though we already know it. So you can consider it a friendly reminder.
The children went to the village elder and asked him:

What is the secret to a happy life?

The village elder took a vessel, filled it with large rocks, and asked the children:

Is the vessel full?

The children said it was full.
Then the elder added pebbles among the rocks. Then he asked again,

Is the jar full now?

The children agreed that the jar was full.
The elder then poured sand into the vessel. The children then agreed that the jar was completely full.
The elder then filled the vessel with water. The children then agreed that the jar was completely full.
Then the elder said that the vessel is a comparison for our life and the content represents ways through which we can fill our time.

What would be the comparison for the rock, pebbles, sand and water?

The rocks represent activities that are important to a meaningful life. We usually tend to neglect them because they are not urgent. We can live without them.

The pebbles represent urgencies that are important for survival, however they aren't critical for a meaningful life.

The sand represent urgencies that are not important.

The water represents activities that are neither important nor urgent. They don't help us have a happy life and we only do them to waste time.

Here's an interesting quote from Mardy Grothe:

To have meaning, our lives require both passion and purpose. A life without passion is like a furnace without fuel, and without purpose, like a ship without a rudder.

Happiness is the progressive realization of your goals.
It's up to every one of us to decide what's meaningful for us, what makes us happy, what are our goals.
Your health, your passions, your relations, might be examples of elements that are important for a happy life.
So

What would be the moral of the brief story?

If the vessel is full of rocks there is room for pebbles, sand and water. The reverse is not true. If the vessel is full of pebbles, sand and water, there would be no room for rocks. If we focus on trivialities we no longer have time for important matters. If we're making a living without paying attention to our passion, our health, our relations, etc. our life would be full of activities without being full of meaning.
To be happy and productive, we can have 5 rocks as priorities. These rocks might be: making a living from our passion, developing and maintaining healthy relations, maintaining your health, investing time in your education, in your self improvement.

I'm curious to know what you think about this brief story.
Thanks so much for reading. Have a great day.