designaperfectlife

here.

a man was struggling in the woods to saw down a tree one day. an old, wise, farmer came by, watched for a while, then quietly said, “what are you doing?”

“can’t you see??” the man impatiently replied, “i’m sawing down this tree.”

“you look exhausted,” said the farmer. “how long have you been at it?”

“over five hours, and i’m beat!” replied the man. “this is hard work…”

noticing the very poor condition of the man’s tool, the wise farmer said, “that saw looks pretty dull,why don’t you take a break for a few minutes and sharpen it? i’m sure it would then go a lot faster.”

without realizing what the farmer was really saying, the man, wiping sweat off his brow replied, “i don’t have time to sharpen the saw, i’m too busy sawing.”

found here.

How many times have you felt like this?? It just seems like life is not slowing down and there is SO much to do, you cannot stop! Just go, go, go, go…

I’ve done my fair share of running my body to the ground until I am sick and I HAVE to sit in bed for a few days. And, I bet I will do this to myself a couple more time, but I was taught a big lesson this past year.

Some of you may know that I have just barely finished up my first year of teaching and it has honestly flown by! However, those first few months I felt like I was trudging through mud. Every Sunday night I would literally call my mom and cry that I could not start another week. I was running myself to the bone and I would go, go, go, go for 6 days straight (even my Saturdays I dedicated to my students!!) and then I would be exhausted by Sunday.  My body literally crashed at Halloween. I was so sick, I layed in bed for 3 days straight. I hardly EVER get sick. But my saw  was SOOOO worn down, I could not go anymore.

That was a lesson I had to learn in order to understand it, but I wish that I had been smart enough, sharpening my saw all along the way so that I didn’t crash. After I layed in bed for 3 days, it became pretty clear I needed to change things. I stopped staying so late at the school, allowed my weekends to be all my own, started going to see friends again, went to the gym; all those things I loved and help me regenerate! But most of all, I was not so hard on myself for perfection. When things didn’t go right, I rolled with it; I stopped beating myself up.

I’m glad that I learned what an unsharpened saw really feels like and I hope to never forget it!

What can you do to sharpen your saw?