Have you ever noticed that some people just drift through life dealing with each problem as it comes along and then wonder where all the time has gone, and why they haven’t accomplished more?
Other people seem to live lives that are very well organized and are able to accomplish a great deal.
You can do this activity just by imagining it, but it will be even more memorable if you actually try this with your child. Assemble a large jar, a pile of big rocks (ones that will fit through the mouth of the jar), a pile of medium-size rocks, a bunch of pebbles, some sand and some water.Your job with your child is to get all of the rocks, pebbles, sand and water into the jar.
It is good to let your child experiment with different ways to do this, even if they decide they need to start over several times. What your child will discover is that If they start with the sand and then add the pebbles and then the medium-size rocks, the jar will fill up before they can get to the big rocks. But if they start with the big rocks, they can get them all in and the smaller items will fill in the spaces in between.
You can point out to your child that its the same with things in your life.You can begin to take charge of your life a lot more if you take the time to decide what is most important to you.
Its not that you have to decide once for all time. Whats important can change from minute to minute, or at least from day to day. But at a particular time, its good to know what is important and what isn’t. That way, you can take care of the important things first and let the less important ones fill in the cracks.
One way to get started on prioritizing with your child is for you each to make a list of things in some category that you both enjoy or know about. For example, you could make a list of your friends, books that you like, things around the house that you want to change, events that have happened in the past few weeks or that are expected to happen in the next few.
Try to get at least ten items on your list, but you can still do this if you have only three or four.
Once you each have your list, number the items in order of importance.
Then take turns telling each other why you have put them in that order. What makes one thing more important than another?
If you and your child continue to practice prioritizing from time to time, referring back to your experiment with the jar and the rocks, you will probably find that it becomes a way to focus everyone’s attention on the important things. Maybe next time, your child is worried about something trivial, all you will have to say is, Is that one of the big rocks?
