The story of the mayonnaise jar

I published this story on the blog last week, but I thought that it would be nice for non-French-speaking visitors to be able to read this story because it is a nice reminder. Hope you'll enjoy it!

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When 24 hours do not seem enough… Remember the story of the mayonnaise jar and of coffee!

Once upon a time, a philosophy teacher took, in front of his class, a big and empty mayonnaise jar without a word and started filling it with golf balls.

Then, he asked his students if the jar was full. The students agreed to say the YES it was.

Then the teacher to a bow full of marbles and poured it the mayonnaise jar. The marbles filled the empty spaces between the golf balls. The teacher asked again to his students if the jar was full. Once again they answered YES.

After that, the teacher took a packet full if sand and poured it into the mayonnaise jar. The sand naturally filled in all the empty spaces and teacher asked once again if the jar was full. The students replied as one YES.

Right after that the teacher added to cups of coffee in the contents of the mayonnaise jar, and the coffee did feel the space between the grains of sand. The students then started laughing…

When they had finished the teacher said:

« I want you to realize that the mayonnaise jar represents life. The golf balls are the important things like family, children, and health, everything we have a passion for. Our lives would still be filled even if we lost everything else and we only had them left. The marbles are the other things that count like work, a house, a car, etc… The sand represents everything else, the small things in life.

If we had poured the sand in first, there wouldn’t have been space for anything else, neither the marbles, nor the golf balls. It’s the same thing in life. If we spend all our time and energy on little things, we will never have space for the really important things.

Be careful to the things which are crucial for your happiness. Play with your children, take the time to go to the doctor’s, dine with your spouse, practice sports or spend time on a leisure activity. There will always be time to clean up your house, fix the tap of the kitchen sink… Take care of the golf balls first, the things that really matter, establish priorities, anything else is only sand.  »

One of the students then raised his hand and asked what the coffee represented. The teacher smiled and replied:

« It’s good you asked. It was only to demonstrate that even if your lives may seem full enough, there will always be place for a cup of coffee with a friend.  »