How Sharp Are Your Tools?

Are you doing what it looks like successful people are doing, but still not getting the results they have that you want? Maybe the all the "doing" is the problem. A lot of people don't realize that the most important thing that a champion do, is develop, improve, and sharpen their mindset.

Yesterday my team helped a group of people improve their mindset. However, this group of people was not a average slice of the population. They chose to take an entire week day out of their busy lives and business, to sharpen their mental tools, so that they can go back out into the world and do the things they do better. There were probably ten time as many people that directly had the opportunity to spend a day with us and improve there mindset, but most people are too "busy" to improve their life, their business, or their health. It seems that most people are oblivious to how much time, money, and energy maintaining their current mindset is costing them.

A few months ago, I had quite a few two to three foot diameter logs to cut up for fire wood to heat my house. I started cutting through the logs with my old chain saw, which took about five minutes per cut, because the chain on the saw was not very sharp and it was doing more grinding then cutting. After two or three cuts, I realized the at the rate I was going, it might take several days, a lot of chain saw gas, and a lot more frustration to cut up all those logs. After a brief discussion with my self, I made the decision to stop the cutting operation, get in my truck, and send the time and money to go the the store and get a brand new sharp chain.

I had to invest a hour or so of my time, $25 in a new chain and a few more dollars in fuel for my truck, and I was not getting anything cut up while I made this trip to the store. When I started cutting again with the new chain, there was a world of difference. Instead of five minutes per cut, I was down to maybe a minute. What a difference one investment can make. It was the same old chain saw, same gas, some operator, same logs, but a totally different out come. About a 5 to 1 return on overall investment. I used a lot less gasoline, added some time to the chain saws life, and most of all save my self time, energy and frustration by choosing to make that investment in a new chain.

So many people go through life, using the same old, dull mental tools every day, because they don't want to make an investment the time, money, and energy in sharpening their mindset. Successful people not only use the right tools, but they continue to sharpen them. That is why it may look like you are doing to same things and using the same tools as somebody else, but in reality they are more successful and more efficient because their tools are sharp.

Stop grinding your way through life and start cutting your way to the lifestyle you deserve.