Learning

I love this story I learned about again at the weekend..

“Two axemen who held a contest to determine who could cut down more trees in a day. At sunrise the contest commenced. Every hour the smaller man wandered off into the forest for 10 minutes or so. Each time he did this, his opponent smiled and nodded, assured that he was forging ahead. The larger man never left his post, never stopped cutting, never took a break.

When the day ended, the larger man was shocked to learn that his opponent, who seemingly wasted so much time, had cut many more trees than he. “How did you do it when you took so many breaks?” he asked.

The winner replied, “Oh, I was sharpening my axe.” – as shared by Tad R. Callister

Stephen Covey shares a similar story about sharpening your saw.

I believe this story is so relevant to many of us isn’t it?

We can get frustrated, debilitated even by the challenges of so many aspects of life and our inability to cope.  Far too frequently however, instead of developing ourselves and taking the time to become more effective, we keep struggling with a blunt axe..

So – don’t do it anymore. Choose to stop, slow down, sharpen your axe and become much more effective.

The key to learning is continuous development.

What will you stop to sharpen today?