How Sharp is your ax?

Looking back through my blog today, I came across this post I wrote several years ago. This is something I've thought about many times since then so I thought it's worth sharing again.

Here you go:

There's a story that I'm sure many of you have heard about two loggers going out to the woods to cut down a tree. One takes the time to sharpen his ax, while the other just starts chopping away. The man who sharpened his ax can chop down the tree faster and with less effort than the man with the dull ax.

I was just standing doing the dishes a few minutes ago thinking about how this story can apply to so many different things in life. Here I was scrubbing away and I noticed that I have two sponges, one that I've had awhile and a newer one. The older one has softened over time and doesn't scrub nearly as well as the newer one. I believe that my time/effort is worth the money to buy a new sponge when needed just as the man's time was well spent to sharpen his ax.

It just made me wonder what other parts of my life this can be applied to. Are there other areas where my ax is dull? 

*Reposted from 2010