Once upon a time, a very strong woodcutter asked for a job in a timber merchant and he got it. The pay was really good and so was the work condition. For those reasons, the woodcutter was determined to do his best. His boss gave him an axe and showed him the area where he supposed to work. The first day, the woodcutter brought 18 trees. “Congratulations,” the boss said. “Go on that way!” Very motivated by the boss words, the woodcutter tried harder the next day, but he could only bring 15 trees. The third day he tried even harder, but he could only bring 10 trees. Day after day he was bringing less and less trees. “I must be losing my strength”, the woodcutter thought. He went to the boss and apologized, saying that he could not understand what was going on. “When was the last time you sharpened your axe?” the boss asked. “Sharpen? I had no time to sharpen my axe. I have been very busy trying to cut trees…”
Reflection: Our lives are like that. We sometimes get so busy that we don’t take time to sharpen the “axe”. In today’s world, it seems that everyone is busier than ever, but less happy that ever. Why is that? Could it be that we have forgotten how to stay “sharp”? There’s nothing wrong with activity and hard work. But we should not get so busy that we neglect the truly important things in life, like our personal life, taking time to get close to our Creator, giving more time for our family, taking time to read etc. We all need time to relax, to think and meditate, to learn and grow. If we don’t take the time to sharpen the “axe”, we will become dull and lose our effectiveness.
I have always peylad Roman and always been offensive to some extent but with only one goal in mind to build WWK’s. To this end my offensiveness boiled down to a few skirmishes and one big day at the end of the server. Always being told by alliance leaders to save my forces for end game.On 16th April (after being lost, having finishes S2 rank 14), I decided I wanted to give your plan a go, so I registered on S6 (a few weeks after server start). I have mostly stuck to your plan but the S6 new rules on wheat suck. I had a granary maxed out with 800 wheat but was forced to build crop land because of food shortage ; this hampered my first few days although I was well ahead of the game plan by day 3. I am on day 9 and am only half way through day 8 task. I did have to side track to take out some troops and have lost about 50 clubs in doing so. I now have full control of my 21 x 21 and feel in excellent spirits. This is my first time Teuton and sometimes I have wished for some Imperians to replace my clubs but on the whole, I have found this round, excellent so far. I am going all the way with your plan and hope I end up doing better than my last rank 14. Bernie is a happy bunny…….thank you