Today I was talking to a person who brought up a point on how sometimes you have to step back and sharpen yourself up before moving forward again. That then reminded me of this little story I was told about sharpening one’s axe to be more effective. Apparently this story can be told in different ways, but I’ll write the one that I heard.
There is one young guy and one older person who were both cutting wood with their axe. They were both going at the same pace and were cutting the same amount of wood. Eventually though, the older person would stop and go to the side. The younger person just laughed at how he had so much more energy than him to last longer and so he just kept cutting away.
The older person did eventually come back to start cutting again. Similarly though, after awhile he would stop and go to the side. Again, the younger person just laughed at it since he didn’t need to rest and so he just kept cutting.
At the end of the day, there was two piles of wood. The older person’s pile was two times more than the younger person’s. The younger person was dumbfounded on the older person was able to cut so much more wood when he kept taking a break all the time. The older person then mentioned that he wasn’t taken break, but rather he was simply going back to sharpen his axe during those times.
I thought this was great little mind thinking story on how by constantly sharpening yourself up you can be more effective in whatever it is that you do.