If you've read any of Steven Covey's books you might remember the story of the woodcutter who, although much smaller than his competitor, felled a tree in half the time. The secret was that periodically the smaller of the two stopped his "sawing" and sharpened his saw, making him more effective than his larger more powerful counterpart. The metaphor shows us that sometimes we spend so much time producing results, "sawing,"  that we forget to "sharpen our saw," that is maintain or increase our capacity to produce results in the future.

Did you ever open a file and find an article that you really loved but hadn’t seen in a while? Were you glad that you found it and did you find that not only was it still relevant but that is was more relevant than ever?

Yeah, me too.

And the funny thing is that sometimes the articles I find are ones I’ve written a long time ago. And then I began to wonder.. are people ever seeing those “evergreen” articles full of wisdom that may be more relevant today than when I wrote them? Maybe, maybe not.

So once in a while you will see this message and it will direct you to a link in the archives of this site that I want to bring to your attention again. Because it’s relevant. Because it’s timeless. Because I want to share it again. And maybe just because after almost 30 years of writing I want to skip a few weeks and still feel like I’m paying good attention to the people who trust me for good advice.

Enjoy this edition of the Keep ‘Em Happy blog and muse-letter.

 

If you’ve read any of Steven Covey’s books you might remember the story of the woodcutter who, although much smaller than his competitor, felled a tree in half the time. The secret was that periodically the smaller of the two stopped his “sawing” and sharpened his saw, making him more effective than his larger more powerful counterpart. The metaphor shows us that sometimes we spend so much time producing results, “sawing,”  that we forget to “sharpen our saw,” that is maintain or increase our capacity to produce results in the future.

Sharpening the Saw 

 

With gratitude,

JoAnna

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