Well, welcome back to Rising 365.
I'm Mike Pena and this is a podcast committed to inspiring and supporting others to embrace
the opportunity to rise with each new day.
I understand that Rising Daily can be a challenge for many and it has been for myself.
And I hope that what you hear in these episodes will assist you in rising every day of the
year.
And just as a special note, remember I'm no doctor or professional.
I'm just a guy who spent years struggling to rise.
But through evaluation of my life and taking the steps, I'm able to rise to the day with
joy and peace and hope.
And I hope these episodes help you.
You know, the other day I was cooking at my house and was cutting some items needing for
the meal.
You know, I pulled a knife out and when I went to cut, it was more of a struggle than
it should have been.
On the appearance, the knife looked sharp.
But when it was time to use it, the results were nothing but a dull knife.
It was like cutting with a butter knife.
And that's why this episode I have chosen to call Sharpen Your Own Axe.
So for a little bit of my time in the military, I was a food specialist in the United States
Coast Guard and it was a great opportunity, great training experience at the beginning
of my military career.
What was really cool about it is when we went through culinary school, which is held in
Petaluma, California, the United States Coast Guard brings in real live culinary chefs from
San Francisco to be our instructors.
And the number one thing, once we got done with all the textbooks and classroom things
when we finally entered the kitchen to cook was the importance of having good, sharp equipment
when it comes to preparing food.
Number one, it was for safety.
It was for the safety of us that if our knives were sharp, we wouldn't have to fight what
we were preparing so much.
With a sharp knife, it cuts through things in one motion.
But when you use something dull, you have to put more force, more effort, and you may
lose control and slip and cut yourself.
Then I live on a farm and sometimes we have to cut down trees and cut logs and split wood
so we use axes.
And there is definitely a difference between using a sharp axe compared to a dull axe.
When you have a dull axe, you have to put in so much more effort with each swing, making
you more tired, and producing less results because the tool you're using, the axe you're
using, isn't efficient, isn't sharp.
You know, Abraham Lincoln, he says, give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend
the first four hours sharpening the axe.
And that's where we're at.
Sometimes it's difficult in our lives because we know we want to be somewhere doing something
at a certain level in our life and we're not there.
So when we reflect on that, that kind of stuff can bury us.
But there's things that we can do in order for us to get there.
You know, Jordan Peterson, he calls it putting yourself together in his 12 rules for life
book.
And there's going to be a link for that book in the show notes.
But it's very similar.
You have to look at the areas of your life that you want to improve and then you've got
to start taking the steps to get there.
You've got to get the training.
You've got to read the books, watch the videos, go back to school and start taking the little
steps to get there.
It's just not going to happen overnight.
So you must be patient with yourself.
You know, you have to start with the little things.
You can go back to some of the previous episodes.
You can start by cleaning your room.
Maybe your living situation is just in chaos and nothing's in order.
The first thing you need to do is get up and get organized, get your room clean, make your
bed, turn the line on, throw the trash away.
Then all of a sudden you're going to see, hey, this place is pretty nice and it's pretty
clean.
If you've been wearing the same clothes day in and day out, it's time to change and put
on some nice clothes.
You got to make healthy choices.
I just had my annual VA checkup and everything was pretty good.
My blood work and weight and blood pressure is all good, but there are some blood marks.
You know, my cholesterol is a little high and that's because I like to eat certain foods.
My doctor is sitting there saying, you know what, you need to eat more spinach, less red
meat and more fish and stay away from rice and potatoes and pastas and stuff like that.
And I know what he's saying to me in order for me to be the most optimal in my health,
there's choices I need to make and I need to start doing them, being more active, getting
outside, getting to the gym.
How many people listening have a gym membership?
But when was the last time you were actually there?
There are things out there to help guide you.
You know, if you've heard of 75 hard, those are 75 days and when you break them down,
75 days does sound like a long time, but what it is doing is trying to give you these little
things to help get you into a routine.
There's even a 75 hard Christian version.
You know, it's drinking a gallon of water.
It's being active for 45 minutes, twice a day, one of those active times being outside.
It's reading a book that will expand your mind.
It's not reading a novel or a nonfiction book, but it's reading something to help improve
yourself in an area and in the Christian version, it's reading a chapter out of the Bible.
There's these things, these little things that if we just did them, it made a routine
on our life, we will see vast improvements in our lives.
And it will begin sharpening us.
The thing is, we will need others to help sharpen us.
In Proverbs 27, 17, it says as iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another person.
This is the God honest truth.
We really don't see our flaws clearly.
No, we know our flaws.
Someone can see things that we don't see.
When we have a friend or a spouse who we've given permission to be 100% honest with us,
they can point out the areas of our lives where we're dull and where there's a few nicks
and some damage has been done.
And then with that, we can begin the journey of sharpening those things out of us, honing
them.
When you go to sharpen an axe or a culinary knife or a knife of any sort, when you're
using that honing rock, what's happening is every time you slide the blade across that
stone, little pieces of imperfection are being chipped away.
And stroke after stroke, slide after slide, you get stronger.
And then when you're done sharpening it, you're more efficient and you're capable to do more
things than you ever thought before.
That's why it's so important to never settle for where you are in your life.
If you do achieve a goal, that's great.
You should be proud of yourself.
But does it mean you stop?
Maybe you've reached a retirement age.
It doesn't mean you're done with life and you just play golf and play bridge with other
retired people and go on vacation.
It means, okay, now I have another chapter of my life where I can improve and get sharper
and still be a part of positive things in the community.
As soon as you're withdrawn from community and not being a part of something to make
the lives of other people better, you're going to find a dullness in your life.
So take it slowly.
Be patient with yourself, but spend time sharpening your axe.
Look for areas where you can be as sharp as you possibly can.
Well thank you for tuning in.
I hope each episode brings you inspiration to embrace every new day.
To support this podcast, consider booking me as a speaker for your next conference,
school assembly, youth event, Bible study, or any special occasion where I can share
the message of Rising 365.
To arrange this, simply send me a message or email at rising247365 at gmail.com.
Additionally, you can support by liking, sharing, and rating the podcast on your preferred listening
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You can also join the Rising 365 community on Facebook.
That link will be in the show notes.
We'll catch you on the next episode.