Swing the axe (or ax)…

Half a tree - pretty cool to see, but do I want it in my front yard? 

We get attached to anything on our properties and it’s hard to let go. We like to have things stay the same. Sometimes, a tree was planted in memory of, or to celebrate, or when we bought or built our house. We don’t want to let go of the stuff we own. It’s hard to take the axe (which can be spelled both with or without the “e”) to things in life. 

I saw this down the street from me a few days ago, and it made me think…

I am a packrat. I’m not a hoarder, but I don’t like to throw things away, that have some value to them. Not empty pizza boxes or old cars, in my yard, but things like awards, books, clothing, etc. I buy a new t-shirt and I keep the 30 other shirts I have - they become sleep shirts, then yard shirts, then a rag, then a headband, the a shoelace, then dental floss, until they’re gone. Obviously, the shoelace part is fictitious, but old cotton floss rolls well…

You get my fail...I don’t give up the old for the new sometimes. Not all old is bad, but sometimes it needs the axe.

It’s hard to cut things down, when you’re attached to them, like…

Addictions - that’s a scary word. It’s associated to mostly really bad things in life, but it can be little things too. Maybe it’s too much TV. Maybe it’s too much reading. Maybe it’s too much eating. Maybe it’s too much time at the office. Maybe it’s too many video games. Maybe it’s too much sports. This list goes on and on. Sometimes, you have to cut something off completely, for at least a while to get back to normal. Swing the axe!

Add-ons - the little extras in life. This could be the things that aren’t really necessary in life. It could be shopping, or eating out a lot, or coffee to an extreme, or Facebook, or one particular show that you watch. The axe needs to come and you will likely not miss the thing you have as an add-on. Swing the axe.

Apples - What? Apples are good for you. Apples don’t hurt you. An apple a day...you get it. Even the staples in life should be tamed once in a while, just to get us into a place where we can focus on the most important priorities. Maybe you don’t take an axe completely to these things, like addictions, but maybe you evaluate them to ensure they are really needed. Hope this one made sense. Swing the axe.

It’s hard to make big changes in life, so make sure that you really figure out a plan of what has to go permanently and what has to go temporarily. Make sure you have support from those around you for the really big things and the really hard things, because you can’t make those changes alone.

...but, make the changes that are needed, so you can move forward.

Lessons Learned: It’s hard and it hurts, but it needs to be done to make us better. Take the axe to things you need to change.

Thoughts: What kind of axe do you like to swing? Or do you?

#failalot