Sharpen The Saw

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Imagine yourself being in a forest and seeing a man working very hard to cut down a tree.

You: What are you doing?

Man: Can’t you see? I’m busy sawing this tree to build a house.

You: I see. You look tired. How many hours have you been sawing?

Man: I’ve been sawing for 10 hours. I’m so exhausted but I think I’ll cut this tree anytime now.

You: Really? Why don’t you rest for awhile and sharpen your saw so that it’ll be faster?

Man: I can’t.

You: Why?

Man: I’m too busy sawing!

A lot of us in life are so caught up doing a lot of things (even if these things are not important at all!) to the point we forget about taking care and developing our most important asset: OURSELVES!

It’s then not such a surprise to see a lot of people who are physically stressed and sick, emotionally drained because of broken relationships, mentally untapped because of not taking the time develop themselves and spiritually empty because of no sense of contribution towards greater things. Our greatest investment is the investment we make on ourselves because it’s only through ourselves where we are able to produce results. In other words, we cannot become the best people we can be and give what we want to give to the world if we don’t have the ability to do so. Despite knowing that the greatest investment in life is the investment we make on ourselves, why is it a lot of us neglect taking care and developing ourselves physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually?

In essence, sharpening the saw is a metaphor for taking care and developing ourselves physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually so that we’ll be able to increase our effectiveness in doing the things we ought to do in life and make a contribution to the lives of others. For, ladies and gentlemen, how can we give if we don’t have? How can we provide our basic needs (food, water, shelter) if we’re physically sick to work and earn a living? How can we get along with our family and neighbors if we’re not able to invest our time in developing trust in these relationships? How can we solve the problems we have in work if the skills we have are outdated? How can we contribute to society if we don’t have any sense of mission and vision in life?

I’ll tell you how: SHARPEN THE SAW

Sharpen yourself PHYSICALLY. Be healthy. Exercise. Have a balance diet. Learn about financial education. By doing so, you increase your effectiveness to produce and perform in life. For your intelligence, empathy and spiritually are all useless if you don’t have the body to manifest these things to the world.

Sharpen yourself EMOTIONALLY. Invest quality and quantity time with key relationships in your life. Because whether you like it or not, you’re ability to maintain and develop relationships is in direct proportion to the success you’ll have in life. Learning to get along and relate with people is not only for the so called people-person but for every human being.

Sharpen yourself MENTALLY. Read QUALITY books on self development, leadership and motivation. Associate with big thinkers. Involve yourself on activities where you’re able to improve your core skills and talents. Stop watching mindless television shows. By developing ourselves mentally, we’re able to understand the world we live in better and be in the position to live life effectively. Educating ourselves should not end after we’re through with school but should be an ongoing process. The only people who get ahead in life are those who continually educate and sharpen their minds. Those who don’t will never achieve their fullest potentials.

Sharpen yourself SPIRITUALLY. Identify your mission and vision in life. Pray. Identify what you can give to the world. There’s definitely something more to life than just living it for the self. We see this sense and passion of contribution in a lot of people like Mahatma Gandhi, Jose Rizal and Jesus Christ. Ask not what you can get in life but what you can give. Because in your deathbed, it doesn’t matter how much wealth you’ve accumulate, how popular or powerful you are but what matter are the lives you’ve touched and the legacy you’ve left to the world.

SHARPEN YOURSELF. SHARPEN THE SAW. The saw represents your physical, emotional, mental and spiritual self and the tree represents life. You cannot cut down that tree if you’re not sharp enough. In other words, you cannot become the best person your can be or live out your purpose in life if you don’t pay the price of becoming a full person. You need to constantly sharpen yourself to be effective in life.

Sharpening ourselves is like taking a bath. We know we’ll get dirty even if we’ve taken a bath but we take a bath over and over again. The same as taking a bath, we need to sharpen ourselves continually so that we become the people we’re called to be by God and fulfill our purpose in life. Because if don’t do so, we not only do a disservice towards ourselves but to others and God because each and one of us are meant for greater things. Each and one of us are meant for greatness. Each and one of us are meant to aspire for excellence.

"Our greatest investment is the investment we make on ourselves."