Sharpening Your Axe

Once upon a time, a very strong woodcutter got a job working for a timber merchant. The pay was fantastic, as were the working conditions. For those reasons the woodcutter was determined to do his best.

His boss gave him an axe and showed him the area where he would work. The first day, the woodcutter cut down 18 trees.

"Congratulations," the boss said. "Go on that way!"

Motivated by the boss' words, the woodcutter tried harder the next day, but he could only bring down 15 trees. The third day he only managed 10. Day after day he cut down fewer and fewer trees.

"I must be losing my strength," the woodcutter thought. He went to the boss and apologized, saying he didn't know what was going on.

The boss asked, "When was the last time you sharpened your axe?"

"Sharpen my axe? I've had no time. I've been too busy trying to cut trees..."

Often times in life we can be blinded by even our most motivated circumstances. This woodcutter forgot that the most important tool, his axe, was slowing dulling each day.

This is a perfect metaphor for our minds, bodies, and health. Sometimes we fall prey to the thought that we must consistently be pushing forward like the woodcutter, forgetting to sharpen our axe.

The axe in our life could be our physical fitness, our mental focus and stamina, or even our overall health. This sows how we need to find what areas of our lives are becoming dull, where it feels like the harder we try, the tougher what we are doing becomes.

How to sharpen our axe:

1. Working out in the morning – the endorphins provide focus and energy throughout the day
2. Meditating when we wake up or before we go to sleep (or any time throughout the day)
3. Taking a 5-10 minute break every 50 minutes in a work or study session – something that has been proven time and time again to give the mind a brief time to rest and actually increase productivity
4. Eating healthy food – fuel the body with the energy it needs
5. Get enough sleep – it goes without saying that a good sleep routine will obviously increase performance and energy

Begin to prioritize these areas of your life and you’ll soon see a profound growth in not just the area you’ve sharpened, but progress and forward momentum in others as well.

We have the option in life to keep our heads down and continue to drive ahead like the woodcutter or we can take a step back to analyze where we’ve lost our edge.

Taking the time each week to do so will let you see where you’ve grown dull and help you find the tools or prioritizations needed to allow an increase in your productivity. Consequently, you’ll likely enjoy what you’re doing much more too. If this hasn’t driven the point home, here’s one final quote:

If I had six hours to chop down a tree, I’d spend the first four hours sharpening the axe.

Abraham Lincoln