I’ve been enjoying Derek Thompson’s weekly newsletter of late. And he had a great post titled “Whose Cup Are You Filling?“
I am thinking of a game. The rules are simple. Every morning, you have a full pitcher of water and many empty cups. By day’s end, you pour all the water from the pitcher into the cups. The goal: Pour the water into the right cups.
*Sounds like a weird game, I know. But there’s a catch. You have been playing this game your whole life. The game is attention. You are the pitcher. The water is your time: your ~17 daily hours of waking consciousness, all your care and focus and feeling. The cups represent everything you pour your thoughts and attention into. They are labeled: WORK, TIKTOK, WIFE, D…
I’ve been enjoying Derek Thompson’s weekly newsletter of late. And he had a great post titled “Whose Cup Are You Filling?“
I am thinking of a game. The rules are simple. Every morning, you have a full pitcher of water and many empty cups. By day’s end, you pour all the water from the pitcher into the cups. The goal: Pour the water into the right cups.
Sounds like a weird game, I know. But there’s a catch. You have been playing this game your whole life. The game is attention. You are the pitcher. The water is your time: your ~17 daily hours of waking consciousness, all your care and focus and feeling. The cups represent everything you pour your thoughts and attention into. They are labeled: WORK, TIKTOK, WIFE, DISHES, EXERCISE, REGRET, PARENTS, ANXIETY, GOD. But, by its nature, water cannot go into two cups simultaneously. When you’re listening to a podcast, you aren’t listening to your husband. When you are thinking about politics, you aren’t thinking about your sister. When you are working, you aren’t praying.
He goes to observe – the internet has a way of assaulting our priorities and entreating us to seek admiration and validation from people we don’t know, will never meet, and don’t even like very much in the first place.
And he ends with – This whole project might sound like a major guilt trip, but I choose to see it differently. Our attention is a unique resource. Bodies degrade, wealth rises and falls, reputations come and go. But attention refreshes daily. The morning’s pitcher is always full. The morning’s cups are always empty. The game begins again, and it’s a game you can win today no matter how many times you’ve lost. So this week I wrote myself a note and taped it to my desk, where I can’t miss it: Whose cup did you fill today?
It resonated. Thanks Derek.