Once, two lumberjacks were tasked with chopping wood for ten hours every day. One lumberjack chopped constantly throughout the ten hours and never paused or took a break. The other lumberjack chopped wood for nine hours, but every day, he also took one hour off in the middle of the day, presumably to eat lunch. Day after day, the two lumberjacks chopped wood in this fashion, and a pattern emerged. No matter how hard the first lumberjack chopped for all ten hours straight, he was constantly outpaced by the second lumberjack, working a full hour less. Finally, the longer-working lumberjack approached the one working less and asked, “How is it that I work the whole shift without stopping, but you take a full hour off and always chop more wood than me by the end of the day?” The second lumberjack paused momentarily before saying, “I do indeed take one hour off daily. I spend that hour eating lunch as you suspected, but at the same time, I’m also sharpening my axe.”
This simple tale illustrates how misguided we can be when believing that laboring endlessly will produce the best results. We are culturally incentivized to work longer and harder with the expectation that we will achieve more. Could we have forgotten that to chop wood better, we need replenishment and a sharper axe, much more than an extra hour of chopping? Consider your own life for a moment. What areas are you pressing too hard on but need more stamina or sharpness to be effective? Where do you feel “dulled” despite your intense effort and work ethic? What does it mean to you to hone yourself so that you don’t spend your life operating inefficiently and instead become the sharper axe? There is certainly no single way to address the need for sharpening. Still, I believe it requires both acknowledging that what we are doing so far might not be optimal and that there are other potentially better approaches. Perhaps we need to integrate a meditation practice, introduce a habit of physical exercise, improve lifestyle choices, or work with a therapist to address unhelpful patterns and learn how to enact positive change.
There are many resources, practices, and professionals that can be highly beneficial when it comes to being your sharpest. I highly encourage you to reflect on where you are in your life, consider where you want to be, and pursue the strategies and guides that can help you get there. Whether we work with a mental health therapist, physical therapist, spiritual guide, or other professional resource, it is important to identify our “grindstone” to be the sharpest and most effective version of ourselves. The secret is not chopping harder. It is chopping sharper.
Photo Credits:
Photo by Erol Ahmed on Unsplash
