Prioritize Improvement

Most people want to improve. They want to get better. They want better health. They desire better financial security. They crave healthier relationships.

Often, it isn’t that we don’t want to improve. It is that we run out of capacity. We fill our days with everything else, all the tasks that we must do and responsibilities we need to track.

Years ago, I heard about an analogy for this. It is as if we are filling a jar with sand and rocks. If we start with the sand, we can fill the whole jar with sand and not have enough space for the rocks.

But if we start with the rocks, the sand can be filled in after the rocks. The sand fills those extra, empty spaces.

If we don’t start with the rocks, we don’t get as much out of the space within the jar. In life, if we fill it with the to do items and mundane daily tasks, we won’t have enough capacity for anything else.

This leads to a busy life that misses on many aspects we desire. We are too busy shuffling the kids to their activities. We spend our time making sure the bills are paid and house gets cleaned.

We don’t spend our time trying to improve. We don’t identify the key areas of life we want to grow. We ignore those because we know that we don’t have time left over.

It is estimated that adults in America will spend 3 hours per day watching TV. While this is the only time most of us get to sit and relax without responsibility and work to be done, it is time that somehow fills the jar.

It is estimated that less than 8% of people stick with their New Years Resolutions each year. That is a low percentage.

When it comes to improvement, most put it at the bottom of their priority list. They want things to improve but they want it to happen for them. This takes us out of the driver seat.

If we really want to improve in life, we have to find a way to prioritize the things that we must do to be successful. I’m not just talking about how to make more money at work. I’m referring to the things that we value in life and want to grow.

The systems and habits approach to improvement changes around our routines so that we don’t fill the jar full of sand and then complain that we don’t have the time. It shuffles how we go through our day to make sure we are building the right behaviors to improve.

Improvement is one of the most freeing aspects of life. If we can improve, anything is possible. If we can improve, we don’t just take what life hands us. We build the life we want.

What can you do to move closer to your goal? What steps can you take daily to inch closer?

Start to find a way to take those rocks and start the jar with them. Start with those and then fill in the rest of the time with those tedious tasks that take up as much time as is left.

Your time will be filled either way. Either way you will be busy. But when using the systems and habits approach to improvement, others will wonder how you have time to do so much. You will be improving and getting better. You will be finding new levels of success and somehow still finding time for the most important projects.