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the beauty of the transition of autumn

I love everything to do with autumn: the brilliant colours, the shift of energy, and the root vegetables that invade my day.  It makes me ever so thankful 🙂   There is a robustness that gets me to review, reflect and revitalize unlike any other time of year.  I would like to share with you a parable that was told to me many years ago that helps me when I come to these moments of consideration in my life.

The Log Sawing Competition Parable:

Two men were having a competition to see who could saw the most logs in a day using old fashioned long blade hand saws.  As this is an arduous and consuming task, they were not able to pay too close attention to what each other was accomplishing in relation to the competition.  But one man certainly noticed that each hour the other fellow took a 10 minute break.  He could not see what this man was doing, but he could see that the other fellow took his saw with him and was gone for 10 minutes every hour.  The first fellow got more inspired each time the second fellow left with his saw, bound and determined that he would win the competition he would saw even more vigorously while the other fellow was seemingly taking a break.

At the end of the day, the judge came in to assess who had cut the most logs.  The first fellow was sure that he would win as he never took a break, worked harder than the other fellow and just knew in his bones that he was the winner.  When the judge declared that it was the other fellow who won, the man who continuously sawed all day, blurted out, “but how can that be, you took a break every hour and I stayed focused on the task at hand.”

The second fellow calmly replied, “while you continued to saw, and you thought I was taking a break, I was sharpening my saw … enabling me to attend to the task at hand, more effectively than you”!

I have taken “time out” to sharpen my saw by creating my new website, ANDERMATT CONSULTING, and a new YouTube video clip  “Who Is Life & Leadership Coach Ruth”,   consider where you may want to “sharpen your saw” in your world.

Happy Sharpening,

Ruth

Life Coaching with Ruth

e: [email protected]

t: LifeCoachRuth

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1 comment

  1. Welcome to Andermatt Consulting

    Yes! I listened to a great speaker the other day talk about how we have now come to glorify the concept of “busy-ness”, it is “cool” and “hip” these days to be “busy” and not so hip to be what would appear from the outside as “not busy”. However there’s been much research as of late which shows that we develop and grow in times of rest and not so much in times of intense activity. So…. the sharpening of the saw is very important… taking time to re-evaluate, to find clarity and to make our focus sharper… it is very important. I often get caught up in tasks, but have to remind myself to take time, breath, and just be, because creativity only emerges at those times. Thanks for the post.

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