When things in your life seem almost to much to handle, when 24 hours in a
day are not enough, remember the mayonnaise jar......and the beer.
 

A Professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front
of him.  When the class began, wordlessly, he picked up a very large and
empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls.  He then
asked the students if the jar was full.  They agreed that it was.

So the Professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the
jar.  He shook the jar lightly.  The pebbles rolled into the open areas
between the golf balls.  He then asked the students again if the jar was
full.  They agreed it was.

The Professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar.  Of
course, the sand filled up everything else.  He asked once more if the jar
was full.  The students responded with an unanimous "Yes."

The Professor then produced two cans of beer from under the table and
poured the entire contents into the jar, effectively filling the empty
space between the sand.  The students laughed.

"Now," said the Professor, as the laughter subsided, "I want you to
recognize that this jar represents your life.

The golf balls are the important things - your family, your children, your
health, your friends, your favorite passions - things that if everything
else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full.

The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house,
your car.  The sand is everything else - the small stuff."

"If you put the sand into the jar first", he continued, "there is no room
for the pebbles or the golf balls.  The same goes for life. If you spend all
your time and energy on the small stuff, you will never have room for the
things that are important to you.  Pay attention to the things that are
critical to your happiness.  Play with your children.  Take time to get
medical checkups.  Take your partner out to dinner.  Play another 18.  There
will always be time to clean the house, and fix the disposal.  Take care of
the golf balls first, the things that really matter.  Set your priorities.
The rest is just sand."

When he had finished, there was a profound silence.  Then one of the
students raised her hand and with a puzzled expression, inquired what the
beer represented.

The Professor smiled. "I'm glad you asked.  It just goes to show you that no
matter how full your life may seem, there's always room for a couple of
beers."

“Think like a man of action, and act like a man of thought.”
- Henri L. Bergson

“I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something. And because I cannot do everything I will not refuse to do the something that I can do.”
- Helen Keller

“Half of the troubles of this life can be traced to saying yes too quickly and not saying no soon enough.”
- Josh Billings

“Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there”
- Will Rogers

“Man often becomes what he believes himself to be. If I keep on saying to myself that I cannot do a certain thing, it is possible that I may end by really becoming incapable of doing it. On the contrary, if I have the belief that I can do it, I shall surely acquire the capacity to do it even if I may not have it at the beginning.”
- Mahatma Gandhi

“You can never cross the ocean unless you have the courage to lose sight of the shore.”
- Christopher Columbus

“To a brave man, good and bad luck are like his left and right hand. He uses both.”
- St Catherine of Siena

“When one door of happiness closes, another opens, but often we took so long at the closed door that we do not see the one that has been opened up for us”
- Helen Keller

“We don’t see the things the way they are. We see things the way WE are.”
- Talmund

“Every problem has in it the seeds of its own solution. If you don’t have any problems, you don’t get any seeds.”
- Norman Vincent Peale

“If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.”
- Dr Wayne Dyer

“The problem is not that there are problems. The problem is expecting otherwise and thinking that having problems is a problem.”
- Theodore Rubin

“Pessimist : A person who says that O is the last letter of ZERO, instead of the first letter in word OPPORTUNITY.”
- Anonymous

“Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.”
- Thomas A Edison

“Blessed are those who can give without remembering and take without forgetting”
- Elizabeth Bibesco

“Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery. And today? Today is a gift. That’s why we call it the present.”
- B. Olatunji

“When you get to the end of the rope, tie a knot and hang on.”
- Franklin D Roosevelt

“Your attitude, not your aptitude, determines your altitude.”
- Zig Ziglar

“If you’re going through hell, keep going.”
- Winston Churchill

“The secret to success is to start from scratch and keep on scratching.”
- Dennis Green

“Champions aren’t made in gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep inside them a desire, a dream, a vision. They have to have the skill and the will. But the will must be stronger than the skill.”
- Muhammad Ali

“Most of the important things in the world have been accompanied by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.”
- Dale Carnegie

“So many of our dreams at first seems impossible, then they seem improbable, and then, when we summon the will, they soon become inevitable.”
- Christopher Reeve

“Hard work spotlights the character of people. Some turn up their sleeves. Some turn up their noses, and some don’t turn up at all.”
- Sam Ewing

“There are those who work all day. Those who dream all day. And those who spend an hour dreaming before setting to work to fulfill those dreams. Go into the third category because there’s virtually no competition.”
- Steven J Ross

“Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.”
- Confucious

“Many of life’s failures are people who had not realized how close they were to success when they gave up.”
- Thomas A Edison

“The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.”
- Stephen Covey

“Efficiency is doing things right. Effectiveness is doing the right things.”
- Peter Drucker

“Do you know what happens when you give a procrastinator a good idea? Nothing!”
- Donald Gardner

“Success is what you attract by the person you become.”
- Jim Rohn

“You have to ‘Be’ before you can ‘Do’ and ‘Do’ before you can ‘Have’.
- Zig Ziglar

“You can have everything in life that you want if you will just help enough other people to get what they want.”
- Zig Ziglar

“The test we must set for ourselves is not to march alone but to march in such a way that others wish to join us.”
- Hubert Humphrey

“Lots of people want to ride with you in the limo, but what you want is someone who will take the bus when the limo breaks down.”
- Oprah Winfrey

“Formal education will make you a living. Self education will make you a fortune.”
- Jim Rohn

“It isn’t what the book costs. It’s what it will cost you if you don’t read it.”
- Jim Rohn

“You must be the change you want to see in the world.”
- Mahatma Gandhi

“The future has several names. For the weak, it is the impossible. For the fainthearted, it is the unknown. For the thoughtful and valiant, it is the ideal.”
- Victor Hugo

“There is nothing more genuine than breaking away from the chorus to learn the sound of your own voice.”
- Po Bronson

“Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.”
- Waldo Emerson

“Use what talents you possess, the woods will be very silent if no birds sang there except those that sang best.”
- Henry van Dyke

“Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric.”
- Bertrand Russell

“History will be kind to me, for I intend to write it.”
- Winston Churchill

“Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life’s about creating yourself.”
- George Bernard Shaw

“Live your life each day as you would climb a mountain. An occasional glance towards the summit keeps the goal in mind, but many beautiful scenes are to be observed from each new vintage point.”
- Harold B Melchart

“The tragedy of life doesn’t lie in not reaching your goal. The tragedy lies in having no goals to reach.”
- Benjamin Mays

“More often in life, we end up regretting the chances in life that we had, but didn’t take them, than those chances that we took and wished we hadn’t.”
- Anonymous

“An excuse is worse and more terrible than a lie, for an excuse is a lie guarded.”
- Pope John Paul I

“Don’t wish it were easier, wish you were better. Don’t wish for fewer problems, wish for more skills. Don’t wish for less challenges, wish for more wisdom.”
- Earl Shoaf