Once
upon a time, there was a very strong woodcutter. He asked for a job from
a timber merchant, and he got it. The pay was really good and so were
the work conditions. For that reason, the woodcutter was determined to
do his best. His boss gave him an axe and showed him the area where he
was supposed to work.
The first day, the woodcutter brought down 18 trees. The Boss was very
much impressed and said, "Congratulations, Go on that
way!"
Very motivated by the words of the boss, the woodcutter tried harder the
next day,
but he only could bring down 15 trees.
The third day he tried even harder, but he only could bring down 10
trees. Day after day he was bringing down less and less trees. "I
must be losing my strength", the woodcutter thought to himself.
He went to the boss and apologized, saying that he could not understand
what was going on. "When was the last time you sharpened your
axe?" the boss asked. "Sharpen? I had no time to sharpen my
axe. I have been very busy trying to cut trees.
The moral of the story:
Our lives are like that. We sometimes get so busy that we don't take
time to sharpen the axe. "
In today's world, it seems that everyone is busier than ever, but less
happy than ever. Why is that? Could it be that we have forgotten how to
stay sharp? There's nothing wrong with activity and hard work. But we
should not get so busy that we neglect the truly important things in
life, like our personal life, taking time to read etc.
We all need time to relax, to think and meditate, to learn and grow. If
we don't take time to sharpen the axe, we will become dull and
lose our effectiveness. So start from today, think about the ways by
which you could do your job more effectively and add
a lot of value to it. |