Committing to Preparation

Abraham Lincoln, 16th President of the United States, and arguably the greatest president who ever lived, has this quote about preparation that I love, "Give me six hours to cut down a tree and I'll spend the first four sharpening the ax.” I’ve got to be honest with you, I get tired just thinking about spending 4 hours sharpening an ax. I mean, that sounds like hard work, right? But let’s stop for a second and think about the result that would come from an ax sharpened so intentionally. Likely, the tree is going to be cut down much faster and far more efficiently than if you just jumped right in and started swinging. That’s how we define hard work within The Winning Tools organization.

So, how do we win from committing to preparation? Well, we create a habit of smart work. We waste no time in our effort because we prepared so thoroughly. We want to focus on our preparation because we'll waste so much time if we just dive head first in with no plan. Activity is not the same thing as achievement. You can be busy and get nothing done. We don’t want to work hard at being busy. We want to be achievers. In order to make the Winning Tool of Hard Work accelerate our creativity, we need to focus on preparation.

Something to think on this week: What is something on the horizon for you that needs preparation? How could you best prepare so that you can achieve the best result?