Some days are a slog. Today was one of those days. And that’s ok. Not every day is going to be easy. For me, the important thing is to focus on what I did get done rather than everything I didn’t.

When I was in 8th grade, our biology teacher had an intern. Mr. Pascal was his name. I probably would have forgotten by now, but Pascal’s Wager comes up a lot in philosophy.

One day, Mr. Pascal shared a story about placing rocks, pebbles, and sand into a jar.

Imagine you have a jar and need to fill it with rocks, pebbles, and sand. If you add the sand first and then the pebbles, there won’t be room for the rocks. But if you place the rocks into the jar first, the pebbles will fall into place around the rocks. You finish by adding the sand, which falls into place around the rocks and pebbles.

What does this have to do with my day?

If you think about everything you have to do or want to do, not everything has the same level of importance. Each of us starts the day with an empty jar. Consider the most important things you have to do as the rocks, the less important things as pebbles, and everything else is sand.

Today, I got my big rocks into the jar. Most of my pebbles and sand didn’t make it in. Some days are like that. Tomorrow, I’ll try again. I’ll focus on my big rocks, then my pebbles, and then the sand.