This guest blog post is written by my wife and my business partner, Roslyn Rozbruch (my biggest rock). 

Michael and I joined a new mastermind group called the Genius Network. This is a different setting than what we’ve attended in the past. First off, it’s a larger group of about 250 people, with meetings taking place all year. Members sign up for three meetings that are capped at approximately 50 people. There’s one big annual event that everyone can attend. Instead of the traditional “hot seat” format, this is more of a one person facilitating interactive group participation, with a few smaller breakout groups, sprinkled in with 10-Minute Talks led by different members during the day.

The best part of this mastermind is that it’s comprised of some of the most successful entrepreneurs in the world! I kid you not — Richard Branson of Virgin Airlines is one of the members! Most likely he won’t be at any of the smaller meetings Michael and I will be attending, but he’s spoken at the annual event.

With that said, I wanted to share what one person told the group that I found to be enlightening. I can’t remember who said it, but this man shared his insight about a problem we all face in our lives — not having enough time to do all the things on our to-do list. It’s impossible to accomplish everything on our lists, so we try and prioritize the order of importance of what to execute in our work and personal life.

This man gave an analogy that gave me a new way of looking at how I prioritize my lists. To paraphrase, he said that if you have a bowl and you want to fill it with as many rocks as possible, it’s easier to put the larger rocks in first and the smaller ones in after because if you put the small rocks in first, it will be impossible to fit the larger rocks in after. He compared this statement with our busy lives, saying sometimes we focus on the small things that aren’t as important and run out of time for the bigger, more important things we need or want to do. For example: exercising. Exercising is one of the hardest habits to incorporate in life. It’s very important to maintain a healthy lifestyle, but most of us never have time for it because we are so busy. But if it becomes a big rock in our life, we will set aside time for it first, and those other less important things, like reading emails, can be done after.

What he said isn’t anything new, but more like an old problem with a new and different perspective. For me, thinking about what my big rocks are that need to come first somehow inspired me to be more specific in looking at what’s important to me as a rock that needs to go in my bowl first.

What about you? What are the big rocks in your work and personal life? Can you make a commitment to yourself to put them in your bowl first?