We dig the rotten tombs. We read books. We explore the ancient scripts and writings. We explore and analyze the histories of the greatest generals and leaders of the past centuries. We’re looking for ways to live a better and more fulfilling life. We’re looking for that secret that helps us push through the hard times, get more done with less effort, and achieve our true potential. The secret has been staring us in the face all along.

If you want to make your dreams come true, the first thing you have to do is wake up — J.M Power

In modern times, we are constantly thinking about how to escape our jobs and go our way, be our boss, and live life on our terms. This requires managing time and building our side hustles. But how are we supposed to work on anything when the day job eats all the time? A quick story.

Fit the Big Rocks First

There was an old teacher who asked a student to fill the bucket with the biggest rocks he could find. Once the student was finished, he asked him:

“Can this bucket hold any more things?”

“No, sir” replied the student.

The teacher asked him to collect the smallest pebbles lying around and throw them into the bucket. Then shake it slowly. The student did so and they all fit into the space left between bigger rocks. The teacher asked again:

“Can we add more into this bucket?”

“Ugh… No, sir. We cannot” replied the student.

The teacher asked him to fetch sand, pour into the bucket and shake it again. Unsurprisingly, the sand sifted through the tiny holes between pebbles and fit into the bucket. So the teacher asked once more:

“Can we add anything else into this bucket?”

The student, now stunned, could only shake his head in denial.

The teacher then asked him to pour two bowls of water. The water was absorbed by the sand and fit right in.

The teacher turned to the student and said: “In life if you don’t fit the big rocks first, you’ll never have any space left for them.”

That can flip our lives upside down in a positive manner. If you want to build something meaningful on the side while holding a full-time job, you must develop a morning routine. You must carve out a part of the time in the earliest part of the day.

Then you don’t have to worry about how the rest of your day unfolds. You don’t have to worry about saving energy at work. You don’t have to spend energy thinking whether or not you’re too tired to take the day off from your side hustle.

If you don’t take action consciously and make an effort to take steps towards your dreams, they’ll be far out of your reach and will only come to you when you die. They’ll come to you and spend an eternity in the grave because you never brought them to life.

It takes effort and hard work without any doubt. However, the efforts needed aren’t monumental or something impossible. Consistency is far more important than the actual amount of time you spend pursuing the task because consistent actions add up quickly.

Hence, give this approach a shot and this might be all you need to break out of this shell society has imposed on you.