KY'AS, Keep Your Axe Sharp, is not a business name, its a motto I live by. Growing up, I had a fondness for tools. Any tool I could get my hands on I would find a use for. Hatchets and other sharp things were wisely kept out of my reach for a while, but they could not resist me for long. After years of using bladed tools, such as my beloved Gransfors Bruk hatchet, I've learned that these tools only perform well when they are sharpened and cared for. Us humans are the same exact way.
If you do not have the discipline to sharpen your mind, body, and spirit, you will seldom succeed. Abraham Lincoln once said, "Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe." What he meant by this is that you must put in the work and prep before hand, otherwise you'll simply be swinging and swinging until your hands are bloody and your axe is broken. You cannot expect to send your unsharpened mind, body, and spirit through the rigors of life and achieve success. After all, "The more you sweat in training, the less you bleed in battle."
Keeping your axe sharp doesn't just mean you should go to the gym (although you should). Its important to sharpen yourself in other ways as well, not just physical strength. Your cognitive ability is the most important tool at your disposal. If you want to succeed, yes you need to work hard, but you also need to work smart. Make sure you spend time and effort sharpening your mind, as well as your body.
Unfortunately, your strength and intelligence will do you few favors if you do not have the will to overcome obstacles. Lots of the time, you will be able to think or brute force your way through a challenge. Despite this, there will be times, more often then not, where you must take the long route and endure the suck. You must work to develop a mindset that can handle the most ferocious opponent you will meet, self doubt.
When the duration, path, or outcome of any challenge you face is unknown, self doubt makes itself at home. You look for reasons to stop and get out of the situation, even when that's not a real option. When you don't know how long something is going to last, or you don't know how to start, or you don't know what's going to happen when you succeed, you must find a way to finish the task. This is where it is most crucial to endure, because if you don't, the result is going to damage your axe.
You cannot stop swinging when the wood gets tough. Its either going to be you or the tree that falls, it does not matter which. The success does not lie with the tree after it has crashed through the forest, It lies with the man who swung his sharpest axe.
Keep Your Axe Sharp
- J
