It was the annual lumberjack competition and the final was between an older, experienced lumberjack and a younger, stronger lumberjack. The rule of the competition was quite simply who could fell the most trees in a day was the winner.
The younger lumberjack was full of enthusiasm and went off into the wood and set to work straight away. He worked all through the day and all through the night. As he worked, he could hear the older lumberjack working in another part of the forest and he felt more and more confident with every tree he felled that he would win.At regular intervals throughout the day, the noise of trees being felled coming from the other part of the forest would stop. The younger lumberjack took heart from this, knowing that this meant the older lumberjack was taking a rest, whereas he could use his superior youth and strength and stamina to keep going.At the end of the competition, the younger lumberjack felt confident he had won.
He looked in front of him at the piles of felled trees that were the result of his superhuman effort.At the medal ceremony, he stood on the podium confident and expecting to be awarded the prize of champion lumberjack. Next to him stood the older lumberjack who looked surprisingly less exhausted than he felt.When the results were read out, he was devastated to hear that the older lumberjack had chopped down significantly more trees than he had.
He turned to the older lumber jack and said: “How can this be? I heard you take a rest every hour and I worked continuously through the night. What's more, I am stronger and fitter than you old man”.
The older lumberjack turned to him and said: “Every hour, I took a break to rest and sharpen my saw”
這篇英文文章內容,敘述兩位參加年度伐木比賽的參賽者其競賽的心態所隱含的人生哲理。
一位是年長但經驗豐富的老先生,另一位是精力充沛又自信滿滿的年輕人。年輕人自認各方面都優於老先生, 甚至還邊伐木邊聽從樹林另一端傳來伐木的聲音,推斷老先生停止伐木時,他就更加賣力伐木, 來肯定自己伐木的數量一定比老先生多, 同時也很自豪的想像冠軍非他莫屬。
結果,完全出乎他的意料, 老先生竟然榮獲冠軍。年輕人當然無法接受這殘酷的事實。他很難理解,就各方面條件他理當是勝利者,怎麼結果如此懸殊?
我突然想到老師曾介紹 Stephen Covey 的 7 habits中的第七個好習慣: Sharpen your Saw.
The older lumberjack turned to him and said: “Every hour, I took a break to rest and sharpen my saw”
很有趣的連想。