Setting your rocks

Last week we talked about establishing our “big rocks” aka our top priorities in life: ourselves, our faith, family, and career. When you really dive into it, it’s startling to realize that when we put our best into our big rocks with laser-like focus, magic starts to happen. Once we identify our rocks and sand, it’s much easier to see that if we fill our metaphorical jar (life) with “sand” (emails, shopping, social media) we don’t have room for our “rocks” (ourselves, our faith, family, etc). So we need to reverse the order.

Two scenarios, same morning

Filling your jar with sand in the morning:

roll over, snooze your phone alarm. After the second alarm, you grab your phone from your nightstand, check your texts, emails and maybe scroll some social media… realize its been :30+ minutes and you barely have time to shave before heading out the door. I guess I’ll just skip breakfast.

Filling your jar with big rocks in the morning:

hit the $5 alarm clock you got off amazon because you decided a phone in your room is a distraction. Jump out of bed because you’re determined to crush your morning and your day. Drink a glass of water you set on the counter the night before. Brush your teeth and shave. Pour yourself a cup of coffee from the pot you prepared the night before and is ready to go for you to enjoy while you read 10 pages from your non-fiction book on self-improvement, business, relationships, parenting, etc. After you read you bust out a few pushups and situps just to wake up your body and get some blood flowing. Grab some oatmeal, fruit, or a protein shake and you're out the door or ready to wake up the kids in less than an hour from waking up!

Sounds great, but how do I set my rocks/priorities? How do I identify my big rocks? How do I fit all this into my already overwhelming schedule? I used to fill my jar with sand every morning. I was the first scenario. If that’s you, then don’t lose faith.

This is going to be an exciting journey for you!

Well, Rome wasn’t built in a day, and the past couple decades of habits and decisions can’t be changed overnight. This week, let’s talk about vision and identifying our big rocks a little deeper.

Why are we here? Why do we exist? Regardless of the answer or your beliefs, do you think we were created, designed or evolved to be stressed out, beat up, depressed, anxious and overweight? I don’t.

I believe I was made to serve others. I also like to imagine that some day I will get to Heaven, and I will be introduced to the version of myself God had intended me to be. I try to envision that man and live everyday with as small of a margin between the two as I can. I ask myself… was I created to see how many Oreos I can down in one sitting? Was I created to see how drunk I can get so that I don’t know if I’m hurting myself or those around me more? Doubtful.

So, I ask myself these questions:

How do I view myself as a man? Who am I meant to be as a man? What brings the most joy to my life? How can I bring all this together to be the best man that I can be for myself and those around me?

As I worked through this and envisioned the man I thought I was meant to be/want to be, I realized there are 7 gardens in my life that require tending in order to be the best version of myself I know how to be. Each of these gardens command their own “rocks”.

Those gardens are:

1. investing in myself,

2. being a great husband,

3. being a great father,

4. being a great friend,

5. spiritual contribution,

6. lifestyle & adventure,

7. finances/career.

With those 7 gardens in mind ask yourself some questions: What kind of man am I meant to be? What brings me joy in life? Was I created to… work, love, hurt, serve, believe, play, etc? As you gain clarity on who you want to become as a man you will realize that some of these gardens are overrun with weeds. This should help you identify the gardens in your life that need tending the most and this will be where you start to identify your own personal “rocks”.

Next week I will share a little more about my journey, and how I discovered these gardens, set my rocks, and saw this all come to life for me.

I challenge you to really think about your gardens that need the most tending this week, and start to form those big rocks/priorities if your life!