I have a daily calendar on my desk with short messages taken from the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People book by Stephen R. Covey. I’m sure you’ve heard of the book, but perhaps you’re not that familiar with the contents.
The seventh habit in the book is to Sharpen The Saw, or developing a balanced program for self renewal. This program of self renewal is designed to focus on the 4 areas of your life: physical, social/emotional, mental & spiritual. In order for you to perform at your best, you must take time to renew and recharge in each of these areas. I’m going to outline some of my practices to regularly sharpen my saw, starting with physical.
There are a number of things you can do to revitalize your physical self, including taking in the right nutrition, exercising regularly and getting adequate rest. I admit, this can be a bit of a roller coaster for me. At times I get gungho and work out every day for a month or more, or I get up early and go for a run every day and then all of a sudden I fall off the wagon and it takes forever to get any sort of routine going again.
One of the simplest solutions to this that I’ve found was to make a small enough commitment that I couldn’t fail. Let me give you an example. Almost 3 years ago now, I was at an all day workshop and heard a number of my mentors speak. One of them, Lee Brower (the gratitude rock guy in The Secret) explained a system he had used to keep commitments to himself (and he learned it from one of his mentors). At the time, he wanted to read more, but was having trouble finding the time. His mentor explained how he made time to read from the bible every single day. Lee asked him how that was possible, and what happened if he missed a day. He said he never missed a day, because his commitment was only to read one sentence (or maybe it was even just one word) and there was always time to do that.
I started the next morning by committing to doing one push-up everyday, and kept that commitment for about 2 years. I don’t think I ever did just one, and it wasn’t long before I was doing 50 or more, and sometimes with my kids sitting on my back! Here’s my challenge to you. What’s one “sharpen the saw” practice you can implement today? Make a commitment to yourself to make it non-negotiable and the secret is to make it something you know you can commit to. Exceeding it every day will just help to boost your belief in yourself, but missing just once can be very detrimental to your self confidence. Start with one commitment, and add a new one every 60 or 90 days. At the end of the year, you’ll be a whole new better version of yourself.
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