The story of a woodcutter

Once upon a time, a very strong woodcutter asked for a job in a timber merchant and he got it. The pay was really good and so was the work condition. For those reasons, the woodcutter was determined to do his best.

His boss gave him an axe and showed him the area where he supposed to work.
The first day, the woodcutter brought 18 trees.
“Congratulations,” the boss said. “Go on that way!”
Very motivated by the boss words, the woodcutter tried harder the next day, but he could only bring 15 trees. The third day he tried even harder, but he could only bring 10 trees. Day after day he was bringing less and less trees.

“I must be losing my strength”, the woodcutter thought. 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…”

Reflection:

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 that 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 get close to our Creator, giving more time for our family, taking time to read etc.
We all need time to relax, to think and meditate, to learn and grow. If we don’t take the time to sharpen the “axe”, we will become dull and lose our effectiveness.

Author: Stephen Covey
From: 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

Comments

THE 9-YEAR-OLD INDIAN TAKES AMERICA BY SURPRISE!

Lets congratulate Tanishq for making India proud with his super intelligence. He took entire America by surprise when he was tested for extraordinary intelligence and scored 99.9 percentile. At 7, he gave lectures to students who were twice of his age. Today, he is only 9 and already completed one third of the credits needed for a college degree at the American River College in Sacramento, California. Tanishq is born to mother Dr Taji and father Bijou Abraham, speaks his mother tongue Malayalam at home and wants to become a scientist. We wish you a bright future ahead, Tanishq!!! Tanishq attracted intense media attention after he joined the Mensa programme for gifted children at the age of four-and-half years. He was recently featured on the premiere episode of Prodigies, a new bi-weekly YouTube series showcasing the youngest and brightest as they challenge themselves to reach new heights. I like particle physics, anti-matter, the fate of the universe and the Big Bang, he

Married or Not You Should Read This...

“When I got home that night as my wife served dinner, I held her hand and said, I’ve got something to tell you. She sat down and ate quietly. Again I observed the hurt in her eyes. Suddenly I didn’t know how to open my mouth. But I had to let her know what I was thinking. I want a divorce. I raised the topic calmly. She didn’t seem to be annoyed by my words, instead she asked me softly, why? I avoided her question. This made her angry. She threw away the chopsticks and shouted at me, you are not a man! That night, we didn’t talk to each other. She was weeping. I knew she wanted to find out what had happened to our marriage. But I could hardly give her a satisfactory answer; she had lost my heartto Jane. I didn’t love her anymore. I just pitied her! With a deep sense of guilt, I drafted a divorce agreement which stated that she could own our house, our car, and 30% stake of my company. She glanced at it and then tore it into pieces. The woman who had spent ten years of

The Importance of Education - Touching Story

This is a true story you can use to stress the importance of education to your children. When I was 19 I worked for a seafood restaurant as a prep cook, but specifically, I sliced and hand peeled thousands of individual shrimp 12-14 hours a day, six days a week. We were a bunch of 18-30 year-old classic American burnouts – except – after school each day – one 15 year-old Korean kid peeled shrimp with us. We affectionately nicknamed him “Flounder.” He was a good kid and we tried not to corrupt him. Everyone knew Flounder’s parents; they owned the flower shop and the liquor store at a nearby mall and his dad had been selling us booze since we were 15. So, one day, about eight of us were standing around in the cooler doing whip-its, when I said, “Flounder, what are you doin’ workin’ a shit job? I mean, your parents own two businesses. They must be doin’ pretty good. You don’t need the money, do you?” Flounder replied, “No, we don’t need the money. I don’t want this job. I ha

Search This Blog