An expert in time management was speaking to a group of business students, and to drive home a point used an illustration those students will never forget. As he stood in front of the group of high-powered overachievers, he said, "Okay, time for a test," and pulled out a bucket and set it on the table in front of him. He also produced about a dozen fist-sized rocks and carefully placed them, one at a time, into the bucket.

When the bucket was filled to the top and no more rocks would fit inside, he asked, "Is this bucket full?" Everyone in the class replied, "Yes." The expert countered, "Really?" He reached under the table and pulled out a bag of gravel. He put some gravel in and shook the bucket, causing the pieces of gravel to work themselves down into the spaces between the big rocks.

He started putting the sand into the bucket and it fell into all the spaces left between the rocks and the gravel. Once more he asked the question, "Is the bucket full?" "No," the class responded. Then he grabbed a jar of water and began to pour it in until the bucket was filled to the brim. Then he looked at the class and asked, "What is the lesson of this illustration?" One student raised his hand and said, "The point is, no matter how full your schedule is, if you try really hard you can always fit some more things in it."

"No", the speaker replied, "That's not the point. The truth this illustration teaches us is this: If you don't put the big rocks in first, you will never get them in at all." It is important for us to identify the BIG ROCKS in our lives.