Meet Michael, he just turned 25.
He will soon have his first child with his wife, and he desperately needs money to support
his family and his newborn child.
His father and grandfather both had history with woodworking and since he was tall and
strong he asked for a job in a timber merchant.
The pay was really good and so were the work conditions.
For that reason, Michael was determined to do his best, he had to, his family counted
on him.
It was early Monday morning, the boss gave him an axe and showed him the area where he
was supposed to work.
The first day, Michael brought 18 trees.
The boss was very happy, congratulated Micahel and encouraged him to keep up the good work,
Micahel then proudly put his axe in the drawer, changed his clothes and hurried back home
to share the good news.
Very motivated for the boss' words, Michael tried harder the next day, but he only could
bring 15 trees.
The third day he tried even harder, this time he managed to bring only 10 trees.
Day after day he was bringing less and less trees.
Michael thought, he must be losing his strength.
He went to the boss and apologized, saying that he could not understand what was going
on, he was scared that if he continues like this he might lose his job, he was trying
harder and harder each day only to bring less and less trees.
The boss smiled and asked "When was the last time you sharpened your axe".
Michael was confused by the question, "Sharpen?
I had no time to sharpen my axe.
I have been very busy trying to cut trees."
Have you noticed that in your life?
You are Michael, the axe is your ability to accomplish things, the trees are your dreams
and goals, and the wife and baby are your happiness and things you care about.
You try to accomplish your dreams and goals so that you feel happy and fulfilled.
You swing your axe every day trying to achieve something, but with the skills you have so
far, you can get the same amount of happiness, satisfaction and wealth, in other words your
progress stagnates if your skills and abilities remain the same.
And sometimes we 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.
And since progress equals happiness, it's hard to be happy when there IS no progress.
It's hard to be happy when every day you're going to work doing the same thing over and
over again, seeing the same results or even feel like you're going backwards.
It's hard to be happy when every day you cut less and less trees even though you try as
hard as you can.
You can be grateful for what you have so far, but you cannot experience true happiness and
fulfillment if you don't progress, evolve and grow.
There's nothing wrong with activity and hard work.
But we shouldn't get so busy that we neglect the truly important things in life, like taking
time to think, 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 today.
Think about the ways by which you could do your job more effectively, learn how to better
communicate with the people around you.
Just stop and think for a minute, is there Anything you can do differently to make your
life better, find out what is slowing you down and then work on it, don't just mindlessly
swing your axe, sharpen it, so tomorrow, one swing can equal 10 of today's.
Learn something that will bring you closer to your dreams.
And before I end this video, I want you to ask yourself.
What new skills did you learn today, the past month or the past year?
Can you think of any?
Have you read any books and more importantly have you changed something in your life from
those books?
Are you seriously expecting something to change in your life if what you're doing is the same
over and over again?
Are you improving as time passes, or are you becoming dull and inefficient?
And if that's the case well...
do something about it.