Lessons Learned Chopping Wood

I spent a week in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area on the US-Canadian border recently. This is the type of area where you pack in everything you need, and you pack out anything you have left over. So needless to say, we don’t bring in extra tools and the ones we bring in are light weight.

Plus, no power tools are allowed so no chainsaws. Hand tools are all that are permitted.

For our group, the main source of cooking is a wood fire. We cooked two meals a day over the fire so it’s safe to say that in 7 days we used a fair amount of wood.

It is a group project to collect the wood, cut it and, if needed, split it into smaller pieces. With the tools we had, we could handle wood up to about a 12-inch diameter.

I don’t have much experience splitting wood so I thought I would give it a try.

The tool we had to use was a Gerber hatchet and for the size wood we were using, it was adequate.

The trick is to look for a spot on the chunk that is starting to split already and hit it there so it will split in two.

I surveyed a chunk of wood and found what I thought was its weakness right in the middle. I wound up and WHACK – down came the hatchet.

The hatchet sank into the wood an inch and stopped.

It didn’t split.

It was just a chunk of wood stuck to a hatchet.

chopping wood

As one of the older, more experienced members watched me try and hammer the hatchet through the center of the chunk, he mentioned that it might be easier to start off to the side of the wood. Then, he said, it would split off into smaller pieces.

I am always willing to at least try what sounds like good advice, and I was getting tired of not making much progress, so . . .

Three hits off to the side and the wood split. A couple more blows to the now smaller piece of wood and it was done.

Wow – if I had only known that before I split the previous ten pieces of wood.

This got me to thinking how I could apply this to Facebook.

Many times when getting started with Facebook marketing people will look at everything they need to do and get overwhelmed.

What type of ad are we going to run? What picture are we going to use, or do we want a video? Where am I going to get the picture or video? What headline and copy am I going to use?

I know the feeling you get when you read the list. I got it when I wrote it.

However; if I make a list of what needs to be done step by step and then get started, before long the entire project is done and up and running.

The secret is to take it one chop at a time and making sure that it’s in an area that can be accomplished easily. It shouldn’t be in the center of the project where it will take a major effort.

Why? Because once the foundational tasks are done the next steps go faster.

How do you pick what to do first? Ask yourself what tasks have to be done before the next ones will work?  You need to figure out a sequence and take it step by step.

Sometimes it’s all a matter of looking at the challenge with a different set of eyes.

If you want to have an expert set of eyes on a Facebook project so you can take those blocks you’ve been hacking at for days, weeks, or months and get them cut down to size, set up a coaching session with me. In only 45 minutes we will take the project that’s stopping you and break it down into manageable chunks. We’ll get the issue stopping you done and lay out a plan for you to accomplish everything else you need. For more information, go to www.gosocialexperts.com/coaching and then schedule your call with me.

Have a great day!

Brian-Sore in Wisconsin-Hahn