Chop Wood Carry Water: How to Fall In Love With the Process of Becoming Great

During a rain storm, Akira explains to the apprentices the difference between skill and talent. Through a basketball and then a golf metaphor, they discuss how life prepares one for success. Just as the dimples on a golf ball enable extended flight, the traits people perceive as faults often help them in their journey. Akira refers to hardship as going up the rough side of a mountain, which makes the climber stronger. Through these images and stories, John begins to let go of comparing himself to his peers.

John and Akira see an uprooted tree and, beyond, a wind farm. Akira points out that the wind is like words in that how we use them can have devastating or uplifting results. Akira encourages John to speak kindly to himself and to visualize good things, and in turn these kind words and images will lead to good habits and, eventually, good outcomes.

Watching a commercial, Akira is angered by the concept that many people believe in shortcuts to success. He explains that when people eat a high-calorie meal but drink Diet Coke, they imagine this as a way of solving a problem. Instead, they are making the problem worse. Akira explains that just as losing 150 pounds requires hard work and not magic, so too does mental training.

After four years, John is now able to shoot beyond the seven-foot distance targets. As he fires at the new, further target, he misses. He keeps on missing for days and wonders if quitting is the best decision he can make. Akira points out that on the road to mastery, there are plateaus. Angry, John challenges Akira, claiming that likely the old man can no longer shoot straight himself. Akira asks John to meet him at the range later that night.

At the appointed time, John arrives, and Akira fires two shots in the dark, hitting the target both times. Upon closer inspection, John sees that the second arrow split the first. Akira explains that many years of chopping wood and carrying water resulted in mastery. There is no shortcut, Akira explains. John leaves in awe of his teacher.

Akira asks John to meet him in the grove of bamboo. Once there, John promptly apologizes for the prior day’s insubordination. Akira says that he is forgiven because carrying around anger is like eating poison and hoping the other person dies. Akira then tells John how bamboo grows from seed to sprout only after months of watering the spot with no signs of life and only hoping and having faith that the seed is still growing under the soil. After five years of nothing, suddenly, the bamboo will sprout and grow rapidly.

Akira tells John that he is proud of him, and John blushes. Akira then tells John that as a young man, he was a truck driver and that the road signs in life are similar to navigating a road without a map. Life is like driving on a road waiting for signs, but often the signs we visualize are negative. Instead, Akira asks John to speak to himself, to live with character and principle, and not to listen to negative road signs.

Years pass and John’s skills grow, but he struggles to shoot in the moment. He wants to “play present” but he cannot detach from the past and future. Thinking about this intently, he trips and Akira laughs, then tells John that the only obligation one has in life is to die and that all else is a choice, a desire, a want. With that in mind, John excuses himself to chop wood and carry water.

One day before the tournament, Akira asks how John feels. John says he is ready to win the tournament, and Akira explains that goals allow us to sidestep responsibility unless they are reworded into mission statements. Goals are boring, but missions last lifetimes and encompass more than simply achieving goals. John nods, but Akira knows he is distracted.

John performs poorly at the tournament and does not win. He stomps away in tears only to be found by Akira hours later. Akira explains that John was not playing present and was focusing on his goal rather than on the mission. Akira asks John to go on a two-minute gratefulness walk, thanking God for the big and small treasures in his life. Akira believes that once you “surrender the outcome,” you are free to perform in the moment, at your highest abilities (69).