In Chop Wood Carry Water: How to Fall in Love with the Process of Becoming Great, motivational speaker Joshua Medcalf fuses a fictional inspirational story with real-world advice meant to encourage readers to revise how they view success. The nonfiction book borrows heavily from fiction through the use of parables that follow the fictional protagonist, John, as he attempts to achieve his decades-long dream of becoming a samurai archer. John is aided in his quest by Akira, who is proficient in both archery instruction and the deft delivery of life advice. Originally published in 2015, the book has been lauded by athletes as a positive shift in the discussion of training mindset. Medcalf is the creator of Train to be CLUTCH, a leadership and mental training organization. He is the author of Finish Empty and Hustle, among other titles.

This guide refers to the 2015 Lulu Publishing edition.

Summary

Joshua Medcalf uses an extended parable as the means of transmitting his view of a warrior’s mindset in Chop Wood Carry Water. In this parable, a fictional child named John and his brother, Jordan, are obsessed with samurai. They devour everything they can find on the subject, determined to one day wield the bow. However, Jordan is severely injured in a car accident, and John must embark on his quest to become a samurai alone.

In Japan, John arrives at the samurai archery training ground and meets his instructor, Akira, who informs him on the first day that they will chop wood and carry water. John is agonized by this, but he listens to his sensei’s advice and is determined to achieve his goal. Through the extended parable, Medcalf offers bite-sized lessons on reframing one’s mindset away from a goal-oriented approach to a mission-oriented mindset. The narrative forces the fictional character John to revise his Western outlook of success and to view his daily tasks, including chopping wood and carrying water, as vital training for a warrior mindset.

As John progresses through his training, he encounters hiccups that cause Akira to offer stories, real and imagined, that give John advice and a gentle nudging toward a mission-focused, daily grind outlook. Each chapter features a new lesson from Akira to John, each clearly stated in the chapter’s title. Many of these lessons appear several times throughout John’s training as Akira builds on early lessons with new material. In Chapter 2, Akira shares a story with John about an architect who failed to realize he was building his own house and did shoddy work, only to be dismayed to learn he had been building his own future. This lesson is repeated to John several times as Akira encourages John to view all tasks as if he were building his own future.

In Chapter 3, an archery tournament is announced, and Akira counsels John to focus on the small things rather than working toward large milestones. In Chapters 4-9, over a year passes, and John feels he has not made progress as a samurai warrior archer. Akira reminds him that the journey is the important aspect of greatness, not the outcome. Akira tells John that nothing is a test, all life is an illusion, and as a result, John should focus only on looking at each failure as an opportunity to grow. Akira challenges John’s understanding of self by asking who John would be if his abilities were removed. Success is taken away in a hypothetical word game, and John struggles to define his identity without focusing on his abilities. Akira encourages John to focus on the journey rather than the outcome and to practice gratitude.

In Chapters 10-14, Akira discusses the importance of working every day toward greatness and abandoning goals by focusing on one’s larger mission. John competes with fellow classmate Katsuo, who is working faster and doing better. Akira asks John to challenge himself in his training but also to speak to himself gently and with intention, avoiding competition with his peers and trying to remain grateful and focused on the process. By Chapter 15, John has been training with Akira for four years. Finally, the archery target is moved back, but John finds he is unable to perform. In anger, he fights with Akira, who demonstrates his superior archery skills. To one day have talent like his, Akira tells John to chop wood and carry water and to always speak to himself with intention and positivity.

Chapter 20 shows Akira attempting to help John emotionally and mentally prepare for the archery tournament the following day. Akira encourages John not to think in terms of goals but rather in terms of a mission. Chapters 20-23 feature the long-awaited archery tournament. Initially, Akira helps prepare John by asking him to think about his mission and not the goal of winning. John fails at the archery tournament and his rival, Katsuo, wins. Akira finds him moping in a field alone. Akira advises John to surrender the outcomes and focus instead on his own process while shooting. Akira showcases a list of now successful men and women who once failed very publicly. This helps John reframe the tournament and focus on his mission and positive self-talk rather than focusing only on one loss.

In Chapters 24 and 25, John and Katsuo get into a fight, and John is injured. He cannot practice until he heals, and Akira asks him to make a list of things he can do without his arm. This parable reinforces the earlier parable about identity when skills and abilities are removed. Akira returns to the idea of identity, this time asking John if his core self is anchored to feelings or principles. He advises John to think of what really matters and to anchor himself to that.

In Chapters 27 and 28, Akira prepares John to return to the West. When he finishes his training, John departs. Though John is eventually successful in achieving his aim of becoming a samurai archer, the novel stresses that what John really gains when he leaves the training facility after a decade with Akira is character. He has become a man at peace, content to work at his craft rather than relying on talent, and able to see the shadowwork each successful person undertakes in order to stand on any podium.

In Chapters 29 through 31, Medcalf departs from the extended parable featuring John and Akira and offers final thoughts as well as personal details about himself and what helped to shape his early life. In these chapters, Medcalf encourages mission over goal-oriented training and encourages readers to audit their lives and look at what matters versus where they spend their time. In the final pages, Medcalf offers additional resources for readers who wish to continue their mental training with Medcalf’s methods.