Sharpening the blade
Some lathes have more horsepower than others. (Image by Mike Hermes)
When my husband Kyle took his first wood-turning class, he learned that the pros sharpen their tools constantly.
The process of making a wooden bowl on a lathe creates an incredible amount of friction. That friction clears away wood fiber, but it also wears down the tools. Keeping them sharp makes the work easier and safer.
Soon after, Kyle realized that he could get the same benefit in the kitchen by keeping the knives sharp.
Recently, he took it a step further. Last year, we got one of those lightweight lawnmowers that run on lithium ion batteries. But the charge on each battery didn’t last long. Four batteries still wasn’t enough to finish our lawn, and it’s not that big.
So one day, Kyle decided to sharpen the lawnmower blade, making it much sharper than it had been when we bought it. The cutting action is so much more efficient that now we can mow the entire lawn on the charge of just two batteries.
How many of us would never think of sharpening the lawnmower blade? I wouldn’t have. I would have just continued to accept the mediocre performance of the lawnmower.
And if I were to compare my lawn-mowing results to someone else’s, I might feel inadequate, not realizing that a dull blade is responsible, not me.
This is an area where we’ve been trained to be careful. We’ve learned that it’s bad form to blame a weak showing on our tools or our circumstances. However, the other extreme — believing that every aspect of our achievement is on our shoulders — isn’t helpful, either. Sometimes, our situation is exactly what’s affecting our outcome the most. Resolving to try harder won’t work.
So, what does it mean to metaphorically “sharpen the blade”? What are the things that influence our output? I will offer a banal yet easily overlooked example: typing speed. I had the privilege of learning to touch type at a very young age. The fact that I can type almost as quickly as I can think is a major factor in my ability to publish so frequently, and it has greatly streamlined my administrative work over the years. Someone who has never learned to type fast will not be able to comprehend how much someone like me is able get done in a day.
Having come to take this skill for granted, I have made the mistake of hiring people into administrative support roles without verifying that they can type at least eighty words per minute. Then, I wonder why they are taking so long to do the work, and they wonder why my expectations are so high. Oops.
True, Jean-Dominique Bauby wrote The Diving Bell and the Butterfly entirely through blinking his left eyelid because it was the only part of his body that he could move. People are able to accomplish heroic feats even with limited means. But these limitations are a big part of their story. How many of us overcome huge challenges without even realizing it? The lack of awareness itself may drive us to surprising achievements, but it also may cause great suffering, feelings of inadequacy, and total defeat.
The story goes that Joe Walsh, the legendary guitarist of The James Gang and The Eagles, spent years laboring over the guitar part from The Beatles’ classic “And Your Bird Can Sing.” In casual conversation with Ringo Starr, he learned that the guitar part was actually constructed by overdubbing a second guitar. In other words, not even George Harrison could play both parts at the same time. Walsh achieved worldwide success and fame as a guitarist, but many of us would have gotten discouraged and given up.
Another powerful but invisible force that impacts our performance is sleep. So many of us are so chronically sleep-deprived that we have come to accept the dulling of our faculties as permanent. If we were to get more sleep, we’d see improvements in mood, physical coordination, mental acuity, and overall health. Talk about sharpening the blade!
Professionals know what to expect out of their equipment. They can make their work more effective and their results more impressive through simple maintenance routines that the rest of us may not be aware of. If we are getting results that are disappointing relative to our effort, it’s worth asking ourselves whether there is something else we could be doing besides trying harder. And if we can’t see it on our own, maybe someone else can help us.
