MM#55--Chop by Chop by Chop

Welcome to the theory to action podcast, where we examine the timeless treasures of wisdom from the great books in less time to help you take action immediately, and ultimately to create and lead a flourishing life. Now, here's your host, David Kaiser.


Hello, I'm David and welcome back to another Mojo minute. Abraham Lincoln was our 16th president, and probably had developed the most character of any of our presidents from the beginning of his life, to the end of his life. More on that to come in another Mojo minute, but for now, let's check out one of his most favorite phrases he learned as a boy in southern Indiana. Quote, give me six hours to chop down a tree goes the quote attributed to Lincoln. And I will spend the first four hours sharpening the axe unquote. Such common sense, Lincoln knew the value of always being prepared and to ensure your tools are always sharpened. But to take that step further, Lincoln knew intuitively that he was the axe. He was the tool to help others to lead the country to save a republic.

 Now back to you, do you believe you are a tool for helping to serve others? Well, and Jeff Olsen's great little book, The Slight Edge, Jeff helps us to unpack this lesson for us regarding Lincoln and his own belief and bettering himself day in and day out. Let's go the book, quote, give me six hours to chop down a tree goes the quote attributed to Lincoln and I will spend the first four hours sharpening the axe, which left just two hours to do the actual chopping. In other words, he would spend twice as much time working on the tools of the job as you would on the task itself. And in the task called your life, what are the tools of the job? They are simply you, you are the x. And no one knew that better than our 16th president who poured an enormous effort during his half century life into making himself the sharpest, strongest and truest axe he possibly could. Unquote. 

So to recap, if he got six hours to cut that tree down? Lincoln advises we spend four of those hours sharpening the axe and Olson reminds us too, that we are the axe. So how do you and me sharpen the axe? That is ourselves? Well, daily disciplines, you know those fundamentals we talked about day in and day out. Jeff tells us start with your health. It drives the whole show and read 10 pages per day of an inspiring self development. Good book that would add up to 3500 pages per year, which is about 15 great books that can literally literally I emphasize change your life unquote. Does all that sound familiar? 

So in today's Mojo minute, let us begin to sharpen our axe. Let's begin to sharpen ourselves. After all, when trying to cut down that proverbial tree a dull axe will take much much longer than six hours to cut down the tree. So let us sharpen our axe for four hours and cut for two hours. And finally, Team Mojo let's do this. Chop by chop by chop


say thank you for joining us. We hope you enjoyed this theory to action podcast. Be sure to check out our show page at T Mojo academy.com where we have everything we discussed in this podcast as well as other great resources. Until next time, keep getting your mojo on