My golf balls and pebbles in 2012

Photo credit: Temprell's Facebook 

I was inspired by a Facebook post of Temprell about a "lecture" of a philosophy professor on golf balls, pebbles and sand. The story went something like this. One fine day, a professor presented an empty jar to his class. He filled the jar with golf balls then pebbles then sand then beer and for every item, he asked his class if the jar was full. The class was clueless as to what he was up to until he explained, "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 and your favorite passions—-and 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 and your car.. The sand is everything else—-the small stuff."

"Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness...Take care of the golf balls first—-the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand," he added.

I have written these 30 awesome things that I received, experienced and created this 2012 long before I read Temprell's post, but I found the content to be parallel to each other - at least in terms of setting priorities right.

And I purposely wrote 30 things in this list on the year I reached the third decade of my life. Yes, just as everyone was scared of the end-of-the-world frenzy, I was listing 30 awesome things that made this year 30licious (theme of my birthday celebration, which will be posted later) and fulfilling.

Golf balls
1. We were transferred to a room of our own
2. Celebrated Noly's Dirty Thirty, 30th birthday party
3. Met with Hugh and Ate Mai, my nephew and cousin respectively who are now based in Hong Kong
4. Celebrated Nanay's and Lara's birthday in Nuvali and Tagaytay
5. More "us" time that resulted in a happier, healthier and better marriage
6. The waiting time for the baby taught me to be more patient
7. Realization that life is indeed beautiful and there's nothing to be scared about it if we just trust God and His "design"
8. Ability to cook more dishes
9. Time to do more writing, reading and reflection
10. More friends at work
11. Christmas greetings from family, friends and ex-colleagues
12. Resources that Noly and I have to be able to help our family
13. Good health, sound mind
14. Feeling of gratitude because of the simplicity and serenity of our lives
15. Zeal for life despite the odds
16. Saw and experienced the Underground River, one of the 7 Nature Wonders of the World
17. Learned to be more hospitable because of the industry I am in
18. Hope brought about by the new management at the resort

Pebbles
1. Became my company's Service Champion for 3rd quarter of 2012 (Employee of the Quarter)
2. Bought Chrissy, our Toyota Altis
3. Settled our real estate tax
4. Tried my hand on stock market (and will continue)
5. Sold backpacks (and now added belt bags)
6. Went to Hong Kong
7. Went to Macau
8. Won a garnet stone in a jewellery factory in Hong Kong
9. Received many Christmas gifts from unexpected sources
10. Career opportunities in spite of my constant rantings
11. Met more priests because of my work
12. Expanded my network of career professionals

Do you have anything similar in this list? I would love to hear in the comments.