In Stephen Covey’s book ‘The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People’ he talks about the importance of ‘sharpening the saw’. You might remember this story if you have read the book.

A man was struggling in the woods to saw down a tree. An old 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.”

“That saw looks pretty dull,” said the farmer. “Why don’t you take a break for a few minutes and sharpen it? I’m sure it would go a lot faster.”

“I don’t have time to sharpen the saw,” the man says emphatically. “I’m too busy sawing!”

Sound familiar?

Are you constantly sawing down trees and working really hard?

The key to world-class entrepreneurship is working SMARTER and NOT HARDER. This means spending lots of time away from your tree and and sharpening those teeth.

You need to clear your mind and get involved in SOMETHING ELSE to let creativity arise so solutions to your problems can be found.

The lumberjack who is guilty of sawing really really hard all day long, and never sharpening their teeth is eventually doomed for:

1. Burn-out and illness.

2. Failure.

Passion without rest is failure in disguise.

There actually is an easy way to get time off believe it or not, and it’s simply this:

YOU SCHEDULE IT IN!!

“I have so much work to do. I’ve got to do this, I’ve got to do that. Oh, and that’s got to be done. Oh no I forgot about that thing I was supposed to do yesterday..”

And on and on…

WAKE UP TO WHAT’S HAPPENING! You are always going to have important things to do! And as for all your problems – guess what! You are always going to have problems until the day you die! Get used to it. This is life!

If you don’t want to give yourself cancer, or end up self-sabotaging everything you are working so hard for TAKE A BREAK! Sharpen you saw and get out of the sawmill! Forget about the trees. They’re not going anywhere.

The key to life and work is balance my friends.

Every SUCCESSFUL entrepreneur takes time out because they know it makes them MORE SUCCESSFUL!

Your time here on Earth is limited so give yourself the best chance of success. Sharpen the teeth on that saw of yours as often as you possibly can, so you can chop down even more trees and SUCCEED BEYOND YOUR WILDEST DREAMS!

Please share this post below to ensure your friends’ don’t miss out on some teeth sharpening for their saw as well!!

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