This is an excerpt from an article I wrote in 2017.

On his first day, an inexperienced young lumberjack was paired with a seasoned lumberjack. Feeling full of himself and his youth, unwilling to take the mentoring and advice of his elder, he decided to set off on his own. He grabbed his ax, determined to prove that youth, in such a brute endeavor, was superior to the knowledge the older lumberjack could possibly possess.

As the sun was rising he began his day of labor, and worked nonstop until sunset, chopping uninterrupted for hours on end, save for the times that he went to check on the progress of his elder. Each time he did check, the seasoned axman was sitting down, resting from the exhausting work. However, when they tallied up the amount of trees felled for the day, the young man fell vastly short of the seasoned man.

Perplexed, the younger man asked his elder, “How is this possible? Every time I checked on your progress, you were sitting, sipping on your coffee.” The seasoned professional, wise with years, told the youngster, “It’s simple. After every tree I chop down, I take time to sit on the stump and sharpen my ax.”

This parable, though short, holds within it several messages that we should not forget, no matter what our job is, or what we are doing. Most importantly, and the point I made to my friend, was that if you work without rest, without taking the time to sharpen your ax (or mind), you will end up chopping away with a dull blade. Everyone accomplishes this in different ways, but it is a key principal of work/life balance.

Secondly, the wisdom of our elders is priceless; do not make assumptions. It is a shame that in our culture too often, the lessons of the aging generation are ignored. There are billions of hours of experience in those getting ready to leave the workforce; do not ignore this fact. Perhaps the young can accomplish more, but only if they build upon the knowledge of the experienced. If a sharp ax head is wisdom, the handle is the youthful leverage applied.