The traffic on I-95 was dead. My morning commute is usually rough. I was up early at 5 AM and rushed to work. I always wake up early because I have so much work to do every day that there are not enough hours in a day. I am forty years old, and I am the Director of Operations at one of the major finance companies. I’ve worked hard to get where I am, and I am working harder every day to make sure my job is done well and on time, and according to the plan. Even though I make a decent salary, I can hardly prioritize my personal life, like spending time with my family. I have been married for 15 years and have two kids, 4 and 8. I wish I could spend more time with them, but I am always busy at my job. I show up in the office before anybody else does and work long after everybody else leaves. When I come home, I work some more and then more on the weekends, holidays, and pretty much every fucking time. Often, I feel like if I stop, the job will never get done, the team will underperform, and the company will collapse, and there will be no tomorrow.

A few weeks ago, I was on the same I-95 staying in bumper-to-bumper traffic, getting more frustrated and annoyed with every minute. The radio played some random lame morning show. I decided to browse through the channels to see if there is anything better to listen to. There’s hardly anything good on the radio anymore. As I scanned through the channels, I stopped once I heard the soothing voice of an older man talking. He mentioned something about “the theory of a thousand balls,” which caught my attention, and I turned the volume up. I sat in my car listening to this older man talking while watching the dead highway. There was nowhere to go and nothing else to do.

“Ok,” said the old man on the radio. “I can bet that you are always very busy at work, aren’t you?”

“Yes, I am, old man,” I replied to the radio.

“So, you are always busy, yesterday, today, and you will be busy tomorrow and so on and on … and supposedly you get paid a lot of money.” The older man grinned as he said that and continued his speech in a serious but kind voice. “They are buying your life with money. Just think about it. You are not spending your time with your family or your friends or significant others! I just refuse to believe that you all need to work that much to make a day-to-day living. You work to please yourself! But see, the thing is that you are just like a hamster in the wheel. The more money you make, the more money you will need, and the more money you will spend, and it is a never-ending cycle. Regardless of how much money you have, you will always want more, and you will work more for that purpose. Just stop there for a moment and think. Do you really need all these new things or more things that you already have? Do you need that new car or brand-new phone with all the bells and whistles or anything else that bad? And in order to have all those possessions, are you willing to miss the time of watching your kids grow up, the first dance performance by your daughter, the first baseball or soccer game by your son? Let me tell my story about how I’ve learned to figure out what is really important in life.”

The old man on the radio cleared his throat and resumed talking.

“I was just like you, always busy with work or something else that prevented me from spending time with my family and my loved ones. One day, on a Sunday, I was sitting at home thinking about life. I was thinking about the following. An average person lives about 75 years. I know some live longer, some not, but the 75 is about the average. Then, I counted how many Sundays there are in a year, 52, and multiplied that by 75. So, the average person has about 3,900 Sundays in their life!”

The man on the radio paused for a second to let the numbers sink in. I was trying to do my own math in my head at the same time.

“I was fifty-five at that time, and I’ve realized that I’ve already spent 2,900 Sundays of my life and that I only got 1,000 Sundays left. The next day I went to the toy store and bought 1,000 small plastic balls and put them into a glass jar in my room. Every Sunday since, I was taking one of the plastic balls out of the jar. As time passed, I’ve noticed an interesting thing: the fewer balls remained in the jar, the more I started to appreciate life. I’ve started to pay significantly more attention to the world around me and learned to appreciate the true value of life. There is no more powerful way to watch how your time is running out in front of your eyes by looking at this always emptying jar with always fewer and fewer balls remaining in there. Now, listen to me carefully as I am finishing my story in a minute.

One morning about one month ago, before I kissed and hugged my wife, I took the last ball out of the jar. Since that day and every next day of my life will always be the greatest gift for me. I appreciate every minute of it, and I try to give all my love and time to my family because they matter to me the most. I feel like this is a pretty good way to live your life. I don’t regret anything, and I have nothing to take back. This is usually nothing you can take with you when you die; the only thing that will remain here is your name and what people who know you will remember you by. I am just happy to be around and to live happily as long as I can…”

The radio host chimed in, “Wow, this is a powerful story. Thank you very much for sharing it with our listeners.”

“It was a pleasure to be here this morning, but I have to run back to my family. Thank you very much. I hope my story will help your listeners to appreciate life more and set their priorities right. I hope I will see you around again sometime. Thank you.” This was all the old man said, and the program ended.

I thought about that story for a while. I had a lot to process. I thought about my own life, and I felt like an asshole for not setting my priorities right. All those days I’ve stayed after hours at my job and the lost weekends that I’ve spent working and traveling and being away from my family… How many times have I missed my kid’s performances and competitions, and sometimes I would forget about their birthday’s for fuck’s sake! I still don’t know and never gave my wife credit for all the work that she has done for our family, helping the kids and keeping our family together, and doing all the heavy lifting while I was busy building my career. The old man on the radio was right. I am just like a fucking hamster in the wheel.

My phone vibrated, and my work emails started coming in. I was still on the highway, and the traffic was barely moving. I had to work early today to finish the new project and get ready for my upcoming presentation with senior leaders. Then after work, I had to go to a business dinner with our new client. There was so much shit going on at the same time that it was overwhelming to just think about all that. I pulled out my phone, canceled all my meetings for the day, and set out the “Out of office” notification. As I approached the nearest exit, I made a U-turn and drove back home.

My wife and kids were still in bed. I kissed my wife lightly, and she woke up.

“Hey honey, I thought, what about you, the kids and I take a day off today and go out to the park and have a little family picnic?”

“Why, what’s wrong? This is strange. Did something happen?”

“No, nothing happened. I just thought we all need to spend some more time together and today is a good day to do so. It is always my fault, and I’d like to make it up to you guys. So, let’s get out and have some fun today!”

“Ok, let’s go out on a picnic then.” Said my wife, still confused by this random decision.

“Sounds good. Let’s get ready when the kids wake up. And by the way, we’ll need to stop by the toy store. I need to grab something there.”