Habit:: Sharpen The Saw TM

HABIT 7: SHARPEN THE SAW TM
PRINCIPLE OF BALANCED SELF-

RENEWAL
“Sometimes when I consider what tremendous consequences come from
little things.... I am tempted to think...there are no little things.”
-Bruce Barton
Habit 7 is taking time to Sharpen the Saw. It surrounds the other

habits on the Seven Habits paradigm because it is the habit that
makes all the others possible.
FOUR DIMENSIONS OF RENEWAL
Preserving and enhancing oneself
• SPIRITUAL (perspective, saint, service, the job, the
contribution the organization gives)
• MENTAL (autonomy, good craftsman, how people are
developed and used)
• SOCIAL/EMOTIONAL (connectedness, good friend, how
people are treated)
• PHYSICAL (tone, good animal, the economic)
PHYSICAL DIMENSION
• INVOLVES CARING FOR YOUR PHYSICAL BODY
• High leverage activity, but not urgent
• Equipment is for added opportunity only
• A good exercise program can be done at home
• And covers ENDURANCE, FLEXIBILITY, AND
STRENGTH
ENDURANCE comes from aerobic exercise. From
cardiovascular efficiency.
100 beats/min for 30 min. is minimally fit
60% of max pulse rate. 220 less your age
(220-AGE)(.6)= IDEAL HEART RATE
PHYSICAL DIMENSION
FLEXIBILITY comes from stretching
Done before and after aerobic exercises
BEFORE loosens and warms up muscles
AFTER helps dissipate the lactic acid to prevent feeling sore and
stiff
STRENGTH comes from muscle resistance exercises
Developing strengths depends on situation, if involved in athletic
activities or physical labor increases and develops strength.
If not, calisthenics in addition to your aerobic exercise might be
sufficient.
PHYSICAL DIMENSION
• Building strength happens when the muscle fiber ruptures
and nerve fiber registers the pain. Then nature
overcompensates and within 48 hours, the fiber is made
stronger.
• Same goes for emotional muscles. The more your patience is
tested, the more it becomes stronger.
• But overdoing only creates unnecessary pain, injury and
permanent damage.
• Exercising has Long term results
SPIRITUAL DIMENSION
• PROVIDES LEADERSHIP TO YOUR LIFE
• Ones core, center, commitment to your value system
• Private area of life and supremely important
• It draws upon sources that inspire that uplifts
• People do it DIFFERENTLY
• PRAYER, MEDITATION, IMMERSION IN GREAT
LITERATURE OR MUSIC, COMMUNICATING WITH
NATURE.
SPIRITUAL DIMENSION
“ I have so much to do today, I’ll need to spend another hour on
my knees”
- Martin Luther King
“The greatest battles of life are fought out daily in the silent
chambers of the soul”
- David O. McKay
MENTAL DIMENSION
• Most of our mental development and study discipline comes
through formal education.
• Many of us let our minds atrophy as soon as we leave the
discipline.
• We don’t explore new subjects in any real depth outside our
actions fields.
• We don’t write critically that tests our ability to express.
• Television ( media ) becomes a powerful source of influence
since surveys says that TVs are opened up to 48 hours a week
• Every day we should commit at least one hour to renewal in the first
three dimensions: physical, mental, and spiritual. This practice is a
"Daily Private Victory."
MENTAL DIMENSION
• Internet( SOCIAL MEDIA ) is now one of the most powerful
in influencing and informing the people.
• EDUCATION-continuing education, expanding the mind is
vital for mental renewal.
• Sometimes involve the external discipline of the classroom,
but proactive people find more ways to learn and educate
themselves.
• Reading Quality literature, writing, organizing and planning
are some ways of mental renewal.
“The person who doesn’t read is no better off than the person who cant read”
SOCIAL/EMOTIONAL DIMENSION
• While physical, spiritual and mental dimensions are related to habits 1, 2, and 3.
Social dimension is related to 4, 5, and 6.------
• Social and emotional dimensions of our lives are tied together because our
emotional life is primarily, but not exclusively, developed out of and manifested
in our relationships with others
• Success in habits 4, 5 and 6 is highly related to our sense of personal security.
While the opposite causes is the cause of emotional insecurities.
• Intrinsic security comes from within, from accurate paradigms and correct
principles deep in our own mind and heart. It comes from living a life of
integrity, in which our daily habits reflect our deepest values.
• There is also intrinsic security that comes as a result of effective
interdependent living and from service, from helping other people in a
meaningful way. Each day, we can serve another person by making
deposits of unconditional love.
SCRIPTING OTHERS
• Most people are living in a reactive mode based on the social mirror. Their scripts
are based on the opinions, prescriptions, and paradigms of the people surrounding
them. As interdependent people, we recognize our role as part of that social mirror.
• We can affirm the proactive nature of others by treating them as responsible
people. We can help support them as principle-centered, value-based,
interdependent, worthwhile individuals.
• In the story of the mix up of the "bright" and "slow" students, the teachers of a
group of "slow" children erroneously classified as "bright" said, "For some reason,
our methods weren't working, so we had to change our methods." The IQ scores of
the students dramatically improved. Apparent learning disability was really teacher
inflexibility.
• Goethe taught, "Treat a man as he is and he will remain as he is. Treat a man as he
can and should be and he will become as he can and should be."
BALANCE IN RENEWAL
• Self renewal must include balanced renewal in all four dimensions--
physical, spiritual, mental and social/emotional. Neglecting any one area
negatively impacts the rest.
• The same concept also applies to organizations. The process of continuous
improvement is the hallmark of the Total Quality movement and a key to
man's economic ascendancy.
SYNERGY IN RENEWAL
• The things you do to sharpen the saw in any one dimension have a
positive impact in the other dimensions, because they are so highly
interrelated.
• The Daily Private Victory, a minimum of one hour a day to renew the
personal dimensions, is the key to the development of the Seven Habits
and is completely within your circle of influence. It's also the foundation
for the Daily Public Victory. It's the source of the intrinsic security you
need to sharpen the saw in the social/emotional dimension.
UPWARD SPIRAL
• Renewal is the principle and process that empowers us to move on an
upward spiral of growth and change, of continuous improvement.
• Education of the conscience is vital to the truly proactive, highly effective
leader. Conscience is the endowment that senses our congruence or
disparity with correct principles and lifts us towards them. Training and
educating the conscience requires regular feasting on inspiring literature,
thinking noble thoughts, and living in harmony with its small voice.
• Dag Hammarskjold, past Secretary-General of the United Nations, said,
"He who wants to keep his garden tidy doesn't reserve a plot for weeds."
The law of the harvest governs, we will always reap what we sow--no
more, no less.
• Moving along the upward spiral requires us to learn, commit and do on
increasingly higher planes.
APPLICATION SUGGESTIONS
1. Make a list of activities that would help you keep in good physical shape, that
would fit your life-style and that you could enjoy over time.
2. Select one of the activities and list it as a goal in your personal role area for the
coming week. At the end of the week evaluate your performance. If you didn't
make your goal, was it because you subordinated it to a genuinely higher value? Or
did you fail to act with integrity to your values.
3. Make a similar list of renewing activities in your spiritual and mental dimensions.
In your social-emotional area, list relationships you would like to improve or
specific circumstances in which Public Victory would bring greater effectiveness.
Select one item in each area to list as a goal for the week. Implement and evaluate.
4. Commit to write down specific "sharpen the saw" activities in all four dimensions
every week, to do them, and to evaluate your performance and results.
INSIDE OUT AGAIN
• There is a gap between stimulus and response, and the key to both our growth and
happiness is how we use that space. Do we respond to situations positively,
proactively? Are we taking control of our own lives?
• The ability to use wisely the gap between stimulus and response, to exercise the four
unique endowments of our human nature, empowers us from the inside out. (The
four endowments are self-awareness, imagination, conscience, and independent
will. See the summary of Habit 1 - Be Proactive.)
• By understanding the role of scripting, we understand the transcendent power in a
strong intergenerational family. An effectively interdependent family of children,
parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins can be a powerful force in helping
people have a sense of who they are, where they came from and what they stand for.
INSIDE OUT AGAIN
" There are only two lasting bequests we can give our children. One is roots, the other wings."
- Anonymous.
• We should make a personal goal of becoming a "transition person," a person who
changes the scripts transferred to the next generation from negative to positive by
being proactive. This should be part of our personal mission statement. A tendency
that has run through a family for generations can stop with one person.
• To achieve unity with ourselves, our loved ones, our friends, and our working
associates, is the highest, best, and most delicious fruit of the Seven Habits.
• Building a character of total integrity and living the life of love and service that
creates such unity isn't easy, but it's plausible. If we start with the daily private
victory and work from the inside out, results will surely come
INSIDE OUT AGAIN
" There are only two lasting bequests we can give our children. One is roots, the other wings."
- Anonymous.
• We should make a personal goal of becoming a "transition person," a person who
changes the scripts transferred to the next generation from negative to positive by
being proactive. This should be part of our personal mission statement. A tendency
that has run through a family for generations can stop with one person.
• To achieve unity with ourselves, our loved ones, our friends, and our working
associates, is the highest, best, and most delicious fruit of the Seven Habits.
• Building a character of total integrity and living the life of love and service that
creates such unity isn't easy, but it's plausible. If we start with the daily private
victory and work from the inside out, results will surely come

Habit:: Sharpen The Saw TM

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HABIT 7: SHARPEN THE SAW TM

PRINCIPLE OF BALANCED SELF-

Habit 7 is taking time to Sharpen the Saw. It surrounds the other

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