{"id":7130,"date":"2016-08-11T14:45:24","date_gmt":"2016-08-11T20:45:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/?p=7130"},"modified":"2016-08-11T14:46:03","modified_gmt":"2016-08-11T20:46:03","slug":"have-we-forgotten-how-to-stay-sharp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/have-we-forgotten-how-to-stay-sharp\/","title":{"rendered":"Have we forgotten how to stay sharp?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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.<\/span><\/p>\n

His boss gave him an axe and showed him the area where he supposed to work.<\/span><\/p>\n

The first day, the woodcutter brought 18 trees.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cCongratulations,\u201d the boss said. \u201cGo on that way!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI must be losing my strength\u201d, the woodcutter thought. He went to the boss and apologized, saying that he could not understand what was going on.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen was the last time you sharpened your axe?\u201d the boss asked.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSharpen? I had no time to sharpen my axe. I have been very busy trying to cut trees\u2026\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Stephen Covey, in his book 7 Habits of Highly Effective People shares this story and then he reflects on it saying:<\/p>\n

\u201cOur lives are like that. We sometimes get so busy that we don\u2019t take time to sharpen the \u201caxe\u201d. In today\u2019s world, it seems that everyone is busier than ever, but less happy than ever.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Why is that? Could it be that we have forgotten how to stay \u201csharp\u201d? There\u2019s 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.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

We all need time to relax, to think and meditate, to learn and grow. If we don\u2019t take the time to sharpen the \u201caxe\u201d, we will become dull and lose our effectiveness.\u201d<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

It is so true. We will never be as effective in life if we don\u2019t take the time to stay centered on the things that truly matter. This weekend ahead is a great time to refocus yourself and really meditate on the things that matter and relook at how you are handling your priorities in life. Make sure you are putting the things that truly matter first because when we do everything else will fall into place as it should.<\/p>\n

Have a great weekend everyone!<\/p>\n

~Amy Rees Anderson<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6719,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[10589,248,4648,719,395,174,1028,10590,550,2579,10594,1627,10510,155,240,3478,10600,4478,778,10601,631,10602,41,67,1296,1007,51,571,2089,9931,1679,76,29,1477,265,55,1295,34,1016,464,233,10595,2390,10598,692,1380,7475,1665,2444,949,1660,1293,1662,112,10591,10593,10592,10597,546,10603,777,275,149,1187,78,948,10596,10599,2118,250],"class_list":["post-7130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-7-habits-of-highly-effective-people","tag-ability","tag-activities","tag-activity","tag-amy-rees-anderson","tag-anxiety","tag-attention","tag-axe","tag-blessed","tag-burden","tag-busier","tag-busy","tag-centered","tag-character","tag-children","tag-core","tag-creator","tag-daily","tag-depression","tag-dull","tag-effective","tag-effectiveness","tag-entrepreneur","tag-entrepreneurship","tag-ethic","tag-families","tag-family","tag-focus","tag-focused","tag-forgotten","tag-frustration","tag-goals","tag-god","tag-grow","tag-habits","tag-happiness","tag-hard-work","tag-integrity","tag-journey","tag-joy","tag-learn","tag-less-happy","tag-meditate","tag-neglect","tag-opportunity","tag-path","tag-personal-life","tag-pray","tag-principle","tag-priority","tag-read","tag-reflection","tag-sadness","tag-self-improvement","tag-sharpen","tag-sharpen-the-axe","tag-stay-fresh","tag-stay-sharp","tag-stephen-covey","tag-strategy","tag-strength","tag-stress","tag-success","tag-tasks","tag-time","tag-to-do","tag-todays-world","tag-truly-important-things","tag-unhappy","tag-work"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7130"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7130\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7134,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7130\/revisions\/7134"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}