Whose Cup Are You Filling?

Derek Thompson with an article that hit home.

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.

Lately, I’ve noticed too many half-full cups — things I wish I’d poured a little more into.

It is easy to lie to ourselves about our values and our priorities. But attention cannot tell a lie. Our attention is the revealed preference of our values. Many people spend their whole lives emptying themselves without taking stock of the water levels of the cups into which they pour their existence. They spend hours, days, and decades watering cups that they never meant to water and leaving empty other vessels they always meant to fill.

I have a a friend who spends Friday mornings at a coffee shop — sometimes alone, sometimes with friends — and I’ve started doing the same. I haven’t really figured out how to best spend this time but it feels like a great time to reflect on what cups I’m filling and what cups are left empty.