7 Habits of Highly effective teens–Sharpen the Saw
The seventh habit in 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens is Sharpen the Saw.
“The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining.” This quote is what sharpening the saw is all about. Habit number 7 will be a huge help if you ever feel imbalanced, empty inside or stressed-out. This habit is specially designed to help with those feelings.
Covey shares a story that sums this habit up perfectly.
Imagine that you’re walking through a forest and you come upon a man sawing down a tree. You ask what he’s doing. “Sawing down a tree” he replies. You ask how long he’s been at it. “Several hours. But I’m making progress” as sweat is dripping off his face.
“Your saw looks dull” you tell him. And then you suggest he takes a break to sharpen it. His reply “I can’t, you idiot. I’m too busy sawing.”
“We all know who the real idiot here is….If the guy were to take a fifteen-minute break to sharpen the saw, he’d probably finish three times faster.”
What if we just stopped for a second, took a step back and took time to rejuvenate and sharpen our saws. How differently would day-to-day life look? Regularly renewing and strengthening four different dimensions of our life can make all the difference: Our bodies (the physical dimension), our brains (the mental dimension), our hearts (the emotional dimension), and our souls (the spiritual dimension).
Finding balance in these four areas is crucial. “How you do in one dimension of life will affect the other three” If we overwork one area, other areas suffer. Balance and moderation in all things.
Take time for time-out is also critical. Just like cars need tune-ups, so do we. Taking time out to rest, relax, and rejuvenate is what sharpening the saw is all about.
We can care for our BODY by eating good, real foods. “You are what you eat” isn’t just a catch-phrase, it’s truth. Our body is literally made up of what we eat. This will help us maintain a healthy weight, always keeping in mind it’s all about how we FEEL, not just how we look. Also, being careful of addiction and addictive substances is important for taking care of our bodies. Food can be an addiction as can drugs and other harmful substances.
We can care for our BRAIN by working hard for knowledge and wisdom. Nothing worthwhile in life comes easy and everyone has to pay a price to achieve any level of greatness. We have to work hard to care for our brains. Having an educated mind is far more than earning a diploma. An educated mind can “focus, synthesize, write, speak, create, analyze, imagine, and so much more. To do that, however, it must be trained. It won’t just happen automatically.”
We can care for our HEART by focusing on building relationships–making regular deposits into our relationship “bank accounts” and into our personal “bank accounts”. Keeping a good sense of humor and opening our hearts to others will help us build strong relationships. “After all is said and done, there is one last key to keeping your heart healthy and strong. Just laugh.”
We can care for our SOUL in many different ways. Our soul is a very private part of our life and is nourished in different ways from person-to person. Meditating, helping others, writing in a journal, spending time outside, reading, drawing, praying, writing, practicing religion, exercising, playing an instrument are some of the many ways we can nourish our souls.
Covey ends his chapter on sharpening the saw with some really solid advice:
“There’s a time for everything. A time to be balanced and a time to be imbalanced. There are times when you’ll need to go without much sleep and push your body to its limit, for a day, a week, even a season. And there will be times when when eating junk food out of the vending machine is your only alternative to starving. This is real life. But there are also times for renewal.
If you go too hard for too long, you won’t think as clearly, you’ll get cranky, and you’ll start losing perspective. You may think you don’t have time to exercise, build friendships, or get inspired in between trying to get good grades or to make varsity sports. In reality you don’t have time NOT to. The downtime you spend sharpening your saw will pay you back immediately.”
