Boulder refers to the immovable nature of some priorities.
Ever notice that sometimes the path is smooth, even, and flat, and at other times it’s bumpy, uneven, and on a hellacious incline? Always, there are boulders.
I recall Stephen Covey using the image of our time and energy as a finite vessel and our various priorities as sand, small rocks, and large rocks. Sand represents the many small items that cross our desks that are quick and easy to resolve. Small rocks represent items that are come complex in nature and harder to address. The large rocks represent our highest priorities, but these tend to be more complex, even daunting, in nature.
To illustrate, imagine we start with an empty vessel.
The natural tendency is to focus on the easier items represented by sand. These are quick wins, and they allow for instant gratification. They make us feel good about ourselves, so we do them first. Our vessel is partially filled, but there’s so much room left!
The natural tendency is to then focus on the small rocks. They are, after all, less stressful and easier to complete than those pesky boulders, so we go after them in earnest. If we’re lucky, we get them done before more sand arrives. If more sand arrives, we drop the small rocks, attend to the sand (feels better quicker!), then meander back to the rocks. Eventually, if we are really lucky, we get the rocks taken care of, and our vessel is filled partially with sand, then with small rocks. There’s still plenty of room!
Finally, we get to the large rocks, the boulders. If we’re lucky, one of those fits in the vessel, but the rest don’t stand a chance. That doesn’t make sense! We have plenty of space between the rocks, so why can’t we fit more in? We measured it all, so it shouldn’t be a problem? What gives?
The answer is simple: by filling the vessel with smaller stuff first, then focusing on larger items, we waste the spaces in between the rocks of increasing size. Our time works the same way. If we are constantly working on the little things, we run out of hours in the day to get to the big things. Life has a near-constant supply of little things, of sand. As a matter of fact, the grinding of large stones creates sand!
Covey and others advocate a different approach. Perhaps, by focusing on the larger things first, we give ourselves more time to easily fit all the pieces of the puzzle into the vessel.
Did you notice that there’s actually room left over? There’s a lesson there somewhere.
Focus on the boulders. The rest will fall into place.
Illuminate Possibilities 