Good morning! I hope you had a fantastic weekend and that your week is off to a great start.
Our family is currently undertaking the repainting of our home. Our house was built in 1882 and as you might expect over the past 124 years has accumulated many layers of paint. One of the “joys” of this project is removing the old layers of paint. Originally we started with a scraper which required a lot of muscle and was rather slow and somewhat ineffective.
We next added a heat gun which bubbles up the old layers of paint making them easier to strip off. This process is much more effective than the first, but still is very tedious and time consuming.
A few weeks ago a friend from church was over helping me scrape. After a few hours of scraping, he suggested I use his pressure washer to knock off the old layers of paint. Fortunately I took his advice and this past weekend put his pressure washer to use. What a joy it was having the water do all of the work. Not only was the paint coming off, but it was coming off in half the time it took with the other two methods.
This reminded me of a verse from Proverbs:
Eccles.
Since a dull ax requires great strength, sharpen the blade. That's the value of wisdom; it helps you succeed.
For many years now I have been a practitioner of the “work smarter, not harder” principle. Sometimes we lose our effectiveness, because we work inefficiently. We expend unnecessary energy or take up time that could be better used elsewhere, because we simply refuse to use the right tools or sharpen our skills.
I was amazed when I first began using a day planner by the amount of wasted time I had in my schedule. I would waste precious time getting ready to get ready. When I took the time to organize I found myself becoming much more productive and effective in my tasks.
So how can you “sharpen the blade” in your life? Look for training opportunities to sharpen your skills. Look for areas where time is being used ineffectively. Evaluate the tools that you are using and see if there are not more appropriate tools available for your use.
This week focus on keeping your blade sharp.
Until next Monday, may God’s richest blessings be yours.
No comments:
Post a Comment