This is a story of the passage from boyhood to manhood through nine lessons learned. It has been said that “The Village Blacksmith” was one of the most influential books written during the Middle Ages, even influencing Shakespeare’s work and its themes became popular among artists such as William Blake. The author wrote about life in medieval times with authenticity and simplicity for an audience who could relate better to everyday situations than more abstract concepts like war or philosophy.
The “the village blacksmith appreciation” is a novel written by the author, M.M. Kaye in 1948. The novel tells the story of an English Village that is isolated from the rest of society and how it struggles to survive.
Note from the editor: Nerd Fitness’ Steve Kamb contributed this guest article.
I’d want to speak to you about tenacity, iron will, and hard effort, which I learnt from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s “The Blacksmith in the Village” on Monday, the unofficial end of Summer.
Even though summer is past, my goal is to motivate you to keep pushing yourself to be better. Many guys will feel compelled to draw the blankets over their heads and hibernate as the days become shorter and colder. However, while everyone else will be on a downward spiral until New Year’s Day, you’ll have been quietly and forcibly remolding yourself from now until then, allowing you to enter 2013 with full might.
Let’s see what we may learn from Mr. Longfellow and his blacksmith.
The Village Blacksmith
Although you may read the poem in its whole at Bartleby.com (which I highly suggest), I’d like to highlight a few crucial stanzas that have always struck a chord with me:
His forehead is saturated with honest perspiration, he earns all he can, and he stares the world down, because he owes no one anything.
We should all aim to be like the Blacksmith. He recognizes that he owes no one anything just for being alive; his destiny is entirely reliant on him and no one else. As a result, he pushes himself to be better, going to bed each night knowing that he’s done all he can to live a happy life.
You can hear his bellows blow week after week, from morning to night; you can hear him swing his big hammer with a measured and methodical rhythm.
The Blacksmith is aware that there will be feasts and famines, triumphs and sorrows, days when everything goes well and days when everything goes wrong. When things go well, he doesn’t become unduly happy, and when things go poorly, he doesn’t blame others or make excuses. He understands that success does not come suddenly, but rather over the course of weeks, months, and years of continuous progress.
Working, celebrating, and mourning He continues on his journey through life; Each morning, a work begins, and each evening, it concludes; Something has been tried, something has been completed. Has earned a restful night’s sleep.
Every morning, the Blacksmith sets out to begin a new work, which he completes by the end of the day. The Blacksmith recognizes the necessity of completing tasks. He clears his mind of all distractions, grabs his hammer, and starts to work! He travels home after completing his daily responsibilities to spend time with his friends and family, putting the day’s toils and anxieties behind in order to concentrate on quality time with his loved ones. He’s discovered a work-life balance that he enjoys.
My deserving buddy, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, you For the lesson you have imparted! Thus, in the blazing forge of life, our fortunes must be forged; thus, each fiery action and idea must be fashioned on its ringing anvil.
The Blacksmith realizes that he can shape his own destiny in whatever way he sees appropriate. Thousands of hammer swings are required to live a life worth living, but he has complete choice over how that hammer is wielded.
You work as a blacksmith.
I want you to consider yourself as the blacksmith, and your life as the iron, starting now. If you want to be an actual blacksmith, go ahead, but for now, let’s keep things metaphorical. It’s up to you to melt, shape, hammer, and rebuild your iron into something beautiful, practical, and durable. Nobody except you is in charge of the form of your iron, which is a beautiful thing. You might wake up thrilled for the day ahead and retire to bed satisfied with your achievements. Look at your iron, summon your inner Tom Hanks, and cry into the sky, “LOOK WHAT I HAVE CREATED!”
It’s also crucial to understand that failure isn’t a terrible thing; it’s just your iron breaking down. Iron must be broken down and melted before it can be rebuilt into something stronger, as previously said. You are hitting your hammer and sculpting the iron into something bigger every time you eat a healthy meal, read a book instead of idly perusing the internet, or exercise instead of sleeping in. In contrast, every time you fail at becoming well, winning, or implementing a new strategy for your life, you’ve effectively recognized a route that doesn’t work for you! Congratulations, you’re now free to try a new approach to approaching your life as a personal experiment.
Determine how you can better balance your job and personal lives. Do you ever wake up feeling stressed, glance at your to-do list, and realize that you’ve accomplished precisely ZERO of them? That was me until I learnt to regulate my time at the computer. Job intruded into my personal life, and I tried to keep the two distinct, failing to give my work, as well as my friends and family, the attention they needed. Then I started to approach productivity like a broken piece of iron, hammering away and improving a little every day for months until I was a completely different (and considerably more productive) person. I now have plenty of time to read, exercise, and explore, relax with friends, and spend quality time with my family.
Understand that shaping your iron into something you’ll be glad to call your own will require thousands of calm and deliberate hammer strokes. It isn’t going to happen overnight. It’s not going to happen in a week. It might take months and months of consistent fluctuations to improve your physical condition, while it can take years to enhance your mental or spiritual condition. Don’t let this discourage you; instead, concentrate on making little, incremental adjustments each day. Joe, one of my favorite blacksmiths, silently wielded his hammer for months and accomplished something spectacular, losing 128 pounds in ten months.
You’re the Blacksmith, right? Up until this point in your life, your hammer strokes have shaped your iron into what you see in the mirror. It’s OK if you don’t like the condition, shape, or style of your iron. There’s no reason you can’t fire up your forge and start recreating it right now. Every exercise and good food breaks down and rebuilds your body, much as iron gets heated, melts, and rebuilt stronger. Your setbacks help you go closer to discovering a strategy that works. So be ready to swing!
Nobody will manufacture your destiny for you in the forge of life; you have the potential to do so. Nobody will ever provide you the blueprint for a flawlessly sculpted physique or a beautifully tuned mind. It must be gained with work, blood, and tears. To rework, remold, and restart, you must take your hammer and swing it constantly. Make your ironing board.
As the summer draws to a close, most people put the forge away until January, when their New Year’s resolutions mandate that they “probably make some adjustments.” Today, I challenge you to keep the flames blazing for the next several months. I encourage you to work hard to improve your blacksmithing skills, to create a better piece of iron, and to find a method to balance your life, job, and family.
Yesterday, today, and tomorrow. The next day, and the next, and the next, and the next, and the next
Start swinging with your hammer.
Start swinging with your hammer.
Steve Kamb helps geeks and normal joes level up their lives at NerdFitness.com when he’s not attempting to be a better guy. You may join the Nerd Fitness Rebellion and follow Steve on Twitter at @SteveKamb.
The “The Village Blacksmith” is a story about a village blacksmith. The main character in the story has many life lessons that can be applied to daily life. Reference: the village blacksmith poetic devices.
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