The Two Lumberjacks

Each year in Montana  an annual Lumber Jack contest is held and has gone through many participants.

This particular contest was between the last two lumber jacks for the title of “Wood Chopping Champion” of the state. These two lumber jacks were professionals in their field, the best of the best; there was no one better than them. The contest was to see who could chop the most wood in one hour, whom ever chopped the most wood in an hour would be named the Champion. The gun went off and the two men with arms bigger than most people’s legs started chopping wood, chips were flying everywhere. These two edged axes weighed more than 40 pounds each, not counting the handle.

After about fifteen minutes one lumber jack stopped, turned his back on the crowd and seemed to take a break on a stump for about five minutes, then went back to chopping wood. He took two more breaks like this one, then each time went back to chopping wood. At the end of the contest the gun went off and the lumber jacks stopped chopping wood.

After counting up the cords of wood, to the judge’s surprise the lumberjack who took three breaks during the contest chopped much more wood than the other lumber jack had. To say the least the judges were amazed.

They asked the lumber jack who took breaks this one question: “Did taking those rest breaks make that much of a difference?”
The humble lumber jack answered: “Rest break? You thought I was taking a rest break but that is not so… I stopped so I could sharpen my ax.”

Training may seem sometimes like taking a break…
But the reality is that without an occasional stop to sharpen YOUR axe with new skills and ideas, you would soon find yourself wasting energy and cutting with a dull blade.