#062 THE TWO LUMBERJACKS


It was the annual lumberjack competition, and after days of chopping, sawing, and tree climbing, only two competitors remained so the final was between an older, experienced lumberjack and a strong fellow about twenty years, his junior. 


The rule of the competition was quite simply who could fell the most trees in eight hours would be the winner.

The younger lumberjack was full of enthusiasm and went off into the wood and set to work straight away. He worked all through the day, barely taking time to catch his breath or to grab some food and water. As he worked, he could hear the older lumberjack working in another part of the forest and he felt more and more confident with every tree he felled that he would win.

At regular intervals throughout the day, the noise of trees being felled coming from the other part of the forest would stop. The younger lumberjack took heart from this, knowing that this meant the older lumberjack was taking a rest, whereas he could use his superior youth and strength and stamina to keep going.

At the end of the competition, the younger lumberjack felt confident he had won. He looked in front of him at the piles of felled trees that were the result of his superhuman effort.

At the medal ceremony, he stood on the podium confident and expecting to be awarded the prize of champion lumberjack. Next to him stood the older lumberjack who looked surprisingly less exhausted than he felt.

When the results were read out, he was devastated to hear that the older lumberjack had chopped down significantly more trees than he had. He turned to the older lumber jack and said: “How can this be? I heard you take a rest every hour and I worked continuously through the night. What's more, I am stronger and fitter than you old man”.

The older lumberjack turned to him and said: “Every hour, I took a break to rest while sharpening my saw”.



What Does It Mean?

There are many lessons in this simple story.
Sharpening one’s saw is a metaphor for training. It’s critical to continually measure performance to determine where additional training or different training is needed for the necessary expansion or fine-tuning of skills. This assessment is important from an individual agent perspective, but also from the training program in general.
I also like to think that another message from the story could be that rest is just as important as hard work. It is critical to have appropriate break times within the day as well as sufficient vacation time to ensure each person can bring a fresh outlook and rested mind and body to the job at hand.
In Steven Covey’s book, he uses the lumberjack story as a metaphor for the need to stay sharp in life and to continually look for ways to improve oneself. Think about ways you can do this for yourself, but also be on the lookout for ways this important lesson can be applied in your life.


Comments

  1. Leslie Arias19 August 2018 at 19:40

    I agree with your interpretations. However, let me offer you my point of view. Reading tells us about the types of stages in our life. On one side, the youth, impetuous, excited, full of ambitions and dreams. On the other hand, we have adulthood, represented in experience and wisdom. And interestingly, in that competition wins the experience and wisdom.
    I think that many times in life to take vital deciones, we mustn't let ourselves be invaded by emotions and as much as possible be rational. Although this isn't simple. The experience shows us that rational detions are almost always the ones that allow us to advance.

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    1. Unknown26 August 2018 at 16:17

      Thanks so much for your inference which is more than valid, experience is something that we get with the pass of the years. You know, what is intelligence without wisdom? I'm not sure but I guess it was Aristotle who said: "I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who conquers his enemies; for the hardest victory is over self." How hard it is! btw good karma in Mexico :)

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  2. Anonymous20 August 2018 at 20:44

    That's a good interpretation about the importance of improve your skills and hard working, but I'd have to add that every professional need a time to plan his activities in order to be efficient with resources and time because there is always a competitor everywhere which is following his steps.
    In my opinion, there is other important idea in this story which is do not underestimate the competitor just because how it looks, that's why is necessary "know the enemy and know yourself" as Sun Tzu says, to make a better strategy in professional and personal life.
    - Ana Luisa Zapata Aguilar

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    Replies
    1. Unknown26 August 2018 at 16:49

      Thanks for your comment Ana, even though it is hard to know yourself and others. Maybe we can have a superficial point of view about others, not enough to know them but enough to know that we don't have to underestimate anybody. The one who you believe doesn't have enough abilities or intelligence to compete against you, can beat you. Finally we have to remember that when you are not practising, someone else is getting better. Life is not a competition where we have to be dishonest to each other to get something but a race where we have to help others and know when to admit others are better at something than us.

      Delete
  3. Andrea Fabiola Rojas Loyo21 February 2019 at 10:17

    From this story I can rescue 2 lessons, the first is that we can't underestimate someone for being older than us, on the contrary, they have more experience and can do better, the second is that we should listen to the advice and teachings of people older, we have to remember that in some moment we'll be that age.

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