5 Swings Of An Ax – John C. Maxwell

I am a HUGE fan of leader Dr. John C. Maxwell for many reasons, but here are a few of the top reasons:

  • His book, The 21 Indispensable Qualities Of A Leader, was given to me by my friend and pastor Perry Noble when we were launching NewSpring ChurchThis book impacted me immeasurably.
  • He combined his entrepreneurial spirit with ministry.  I didn’t know that was really possible.
  • He is a continuous learner.
  • He makes complex topics understandable and applicable.
  • His voice is ridiculously great.

Anyway, I heard him share a story once at a conference we were speaking at, and it is so good I wanted to share it with you.

5 Swings Of An Ax

Suppose you want to cut down a huge tree in your front yard and all you have is an ax to cut it down with.  You could approach it a couple of ways:

  1. Go after it!  Swinging vigorously and mightily until you were completely worn out.
  2. Pace yourself.  Swinging strongly 5 times each day.

If you were to choose Option #1, you could swing vigorously and mightily until all of the strength had left you body, but all you would end up with is complete exhaustion and a tree with some chop marks in it.  And because you had exhausted yourself so completely, you might not even be able to bring yourself to pick the ax back up!

If you were to choose Option #2, you would make a serious mark each day with your five swings and there would be NO QUESTION of “if” the tree were going to come down.  The only question would be “when” the tree would fall – because with this method of 5 swings of a ax EVERY DAY, it WILL fall!

This is so important when pursuing a financial goal.  If you go crazy and loco after the goal, you might make a short-term difference, but chances are high that you will burn yourself out and just give up.

Choose instead to establish a pattern of “5 swings of an ax” toward your goal.  Every single day, get up and take 5 swings toward your goal.  Every. Single. Day.

Then your goal is no longer a matter of “IF” – only a matter of “WHEN”!

Read recent posts

1 Comment

  1. Trish Crossley on February 7, 2012 at 6:45 am

    Love this!! Not a matter of “IF” but “WHEN”!



Leave a Comment