The Big Rock!
Just a quick reminder if you missed my last post. I will soon be changing the name of the newsletter from "The Learning Machine" to
"The Adventurous Money"
So the next time you see a different name in your inbox, don’t be spooked. It’s just me!
Now, onto today’s post.
What are some of the essential things in your life? Have you ever given thought to this question? Duh! We all probably have thought about it someday, in some form. Not necessarily using the exact words I have used, but I am sure you have!
I came across a story recently that threw me right back to that question, and before I knew it, I was down the rabbit hole of questions I was asking myself about the big rocks in my life. Before I explain about this big, mysterious rock that I was questioning myself about, let me share a small article with you from Tim Urban.
From a day-to-day perspective, our lives seem long. But are they really?
Tim Urban from Wait But Why shares a perspective on how long our lives really are. He is able to draw an average human life on just one sheet of paper.
ONE BIG PIECE OF PAPER! THAT’s IT!
The above boxes are all our lives on a single page, distributed over several weeks. Tim writes about how he only has 60 years left before he turns 90 and calculates the amoutn of time he has used up or has in the future to do certain things. He mentions about he had already used up more than 90% of his time with his parents by the time he graduated high school. Or that at a pace of 5 books a year, he only has about 300 books left that he will be able to read from the entire universe of written content available.
It is some powerful stuff!
Thinking along the same lines. I am currently 28 years old, and I work out fairly regularly and try to maintain a good lifestyle as much as possible. So let us just say there is a good chance I will survive until 90, as Tim observes. This means I have around 62 years left if I were to die of aging.
This would mean I only have 62 more seasons of riding to enjoy in the rain.
I am lucky enough to be living around my parents, but given that they are in their fifties and that on average we spend 10 hours a week together, that would mean that out of the 350,000 hours that they have to live, I have another 20800 hours to spend with them. Sure, it sounds like a lot, but that is only 5.95% of all the time that we’ll be spending together.
Similar to Tim, I probably read around 5-7 books a year, which means out of 129,864,880 available books as per Google, I am only going to be able to read around 360 books, which is 0.00000277211% of all the readable books!
Powerful stuff, huh?
There are plenty of other things in our so-called long lives that we decide to do later because we are always too busy to do them today. But when you think of your life in weeks and hours, much of the stuff you wish for is already too scarce to do it later!
Now let’s talk about the big mysterious rock I mentioned earlier. The story of the rock is a story narrated by an unknown high school science professor to demonstrate a concept to his students.
This professor takes a jar with a large mouth and fills it with big rocks. He asks his student if the jar is full.
Unanimously, the students reply, "Yes."
The professor then takes smaller rocks and puts them into the jar, and then asks the same question.
This time, the response from the students wasn’t as strong!
The professor then takes some sand and puts it in the jar. The sand takes up the space between the big rocks and the small. And he asks the same question for the third time. “Is the jar full?”
This time around, more than half of the class looks amazed and decides to refrain from saying yes, but a few of them say YES!
The professor then takes a glass of water and pours it into the jar. The sand in the jar absorbs the water, and at this point, the professor poses a different question to the class.
“What was the point of this demonstration?”
To this, a student stands up and replies, " No matter how busy one’s life is, one can always squeeze in more."
The teacher gently replies to this student, "No, that’s not the point. The point is unless you fill the jar with the big rocks first, you will never have time to put them in later." The big rocks are the important things in your life. Your family, friends, and personal growth If you fill your jar with small rocks, sand, and water, you will never have the time to accommodate the big rocks in your life.
So what are the big rocks in your life?
Spending time with your parents, spouse, or children? Watching that new seminar on how to trade like a pro? Making time to create goals and evaluate progress? Next time you see yourself crunched for time, remember about the JAR!
There are two things that I would like you to take away from this.
Life’s actually too short to be spending your time doing things you don't want to. It can literally be drawn on a single piece of paper.
Fill the jar of your life with the most important people and values first.
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