An Important Habit: Sharpening the Saw

Today, I will recommend you a book by Stephen R. Covey that you might already know. The book’s name is “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.” I think everyone who is enthusiastic about improving themselves should read the book.

I will not dive into all of the details of the 7 habits, but I want to emphasize one. It is called “Sharpen the Saw” and this is the last habit mentioned in the book. I want to confess that these habits are easy to say but hard to incorporate into your routine because they involve being proactive.

Sharpening the saw refers to the renewal and contribution to ourselves first. As my deduction from the book, this habit is the most important one to leverage other habits. This is a habit of daily self-renewal.

Covey says that we should have a balanced program for self-renewal in the four areas of life: physical, social/emotional, mental, and spiritual.

The main logic behind this habit is the fact that, to live a happy life and be effective, you should first preserve and enhance the greatest asset you have, you. You should contribute yourself in those four areas every day, regularly. Let’s look at how can you develop yourself in those four areas.

Physical: To live a good life, you should have a strong body. You should have a healthy diet, do exercise regularly, stay away from stress, and get the necessary amount of sleep.

Mental: You should improve your mind regularly. Unless you do something to use your mind, your brain activities will decrease which will eventually cause mental illnesses when you get old. In order to be mentally healthy, you should read, write, learn, and study constantly.

Social/emotional: You, as a human are a social being. You need to contribute to your relationships and build empathy. You should pay attention to have some quality time with your family and friends. Remember, the people who live longer are the ones who build strong and happy relationships.

Spiritual: You should remember that you have a soul that you should care. You should listen to your soul and foster it. In order to achieve that, you can use meditation techniques or you can set yourself a specific time away from distractions so that you can spend some quality and peaceful time with yourself.

Sharpen the Saw keeps you fresh so you can continue to practice the other six habits. By practicing this habit, you can increase your capacity to grow and change. Without this renewal, your body becomes weak, your mind vague, your soul insensitive, and your emotions uncultivated.

Start to improve yourself every day in the four areas of life. It may seem hard to apply in the first place, but all you need is desire. You don’t need to spend so much time to do this. You can start by having more healthy meals and doing exercise for just half an hour a day to develop your body. Then, you can allocate one hour to read and study about something that you have an interest to develop your mind. And for your soul, you can try to meditate for 10 minutes before going to bed. To develop your social and emotional being, you can plan an activity to do with your family or friends once a week.

Remember that, feeling good does not just happen. You need to pay attention to yourself.

“Renewal is the principle — and the process — that empowers us to move on an upward spiral of growth and change, of continuous improvement.”

— Dr. Stephen R. Covey