Its easy to stretch yourself thin without realising it. To take on one more task because you have the capacity at that point, but to suffer the consequences over time.
There is an apocryphal story of a wise professor, who had a large glass cylinder on the desk. Next to it were some containers. One had sand, one water, one pebbles, one rocks. He asks the class whether they can put all of the containers in to the large glass vessel and various estimates are made, from calculations of volume to stack considerations. Eventually he says that there is only one way to do it, but it will work. First, he puts in the big rocks. They fit snuggly and appear to almost fill the vessel. Then he pours in the pebbles and slowly shakes the vessel so they fit into the gaps between the big rocks. Then the sand and the agitation. Finally, he pours the water on and it percolates through and fills the space, eventually lapping at the top of the glass.
We far too often fill our time with small tasks, see a gap of space and occupy it, we are so afraid of not being seen to be busy, and the world rushing in to fill the void, that we ignore the truly important. And of course, the constant battle with entropy and the screaming in our heads of western productivity.
I forgot what my priorities were, I am guilty of this. I filled my days with the need to be needed, the desire to compete with the race for busy-ness, which is remarkably close to busi-ness.
And so I have taken time to unwind some of the efforts, to contract and recalibrate. I have had to painfully let go of some opportunities, and some activities, which occupied time, brought me pleasure but took my focus.
It is hard to sit with the emptiness, to feel those moments and not rush to do something.
But it does release energy to concentrate on the important.
Find your important things, perhaps the 3 things that truly matter to you, and allow everything else to fit in around them. Other peoples priorities are not yours, though that is hard to remember some days, especially with cultural indoctrination.
