
“Sharpening the saw means preserving and enhancing the greatest asset you have — you.” — Stephen R. Covey
To help you — and your team — achieve full potential, we must proactively and continually “sharpen our saw.” The concept of sharpening our saw is the pinnacle habit of Stephen Covey’s timeless classic “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.” Sharpening the saw means we have optimum performance by having a balanced program for continuous self-renewal in the four areas of our life: body (physical), mind (mental), heart (social/emotional), and soul (spiritual).
By taking time to renew ourselves in these four dimensions, we will be much more effective and successful when engaging in life’s tasks and pursuits — including leading our teams to greater results. Abraham Lincoln illustrated this truth by saying, “Give me six hours to chop down a tree, and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.”
The key for us is to embrace the concepts of continuous learning and improvement. We have all experienced success in our lives, but future growth and success are contingent on avoiding complacency and being intentional in developing ourselves. Author and pastor Rick Warren cautions, “The greatest detriment to tomorrow’s success is today’s success.” I suggest a two-step process. First, embrace being a life-long learner. Second, put your learning into action. Businessman Jim Rohn encourages, “Don’t let your learning lead to knowledge. Let your learning lead to action.”
Let’s explore ideas that can help us continually renew ourselves in each of the four important dimensions.
Body (Physical)
The following basics for good physical health are well known, but not consistently practiced. Being physically healthy improves the quality and expected length of our lives. When we are physically healthy, we are happier, have more energy, are more productive, and are stronger mentally (“the body feeds the mind”). Here are four proven practices for being physically healthy.
1. Eat Healthy
We can benefit from reducing fat, sugar, refined flour, and salt intake, and increasing whole grains and fresh fruits and vegetables. By the way, one of the best things I have ever heard is that dark chocolate is good for us. And for you coffee drinkers, recent studies show that drinking coffee also has health benefits.
2. Exercise Regularly
Exercise revs up our body's production of feel-good endorphins, can help regulate our sleep, lowers the symptoms associated with mild depression, boosts our energy, and helps us stay calm and focused. This can go a long way toward good health and stress management. For me, I enjoy walks with my wife and playing tennis with friends — and I always feel physically and mentally energized and less stressed afterward.
3. Get Enough Sleep and Rest
Experts say that most adults need at least seven hours of sleep to function optimally. It may be tempting to scrimp on sleep to get more work done, but there is a price to pay if we do. Numerous studies have found a link between insufficient sleep and serious health problems such as heart disease, diabetes, and obesity.
4. Handle Stress Well
The first three items on this list all help us manage stress. There are other ways to manage stress, including getting fresh air, talking to and caring for others, cultivating gratitude, and playing.
Mind (Mental)
Exercising our mind is one important factor in good mental health. Here are four ways we can exercise and develop our minds.
1. Life-Long Learning
Henry Ford challenges us when he said, “Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at 20 or 80. Anyone who keeps learning stays young.” As a long-time university teacher, I believe in the value of formal education. Whether it’s pursuing a degree or taking a class just to learn more, college and university classes are worthwhile. But informal learning is also valuable, and nowadays, there are numerous opportunities to learn from webinars, seminars, online classes, and other resources. We can also learn by getting involved with conferences like the IPMA annual conference, professional organizations like IPMA, and trade journals like In-plant Impressions.
I am inspired by the example of Pablo Casals, who bore the nickname Mr. Cellist. A young reporter once asked, “Mr. Casals, you are 95 and the greatest cellist who ever lived. Why do you still practice six hours a day?” Pablo answered, “Because I think I’m making progress.”
2. Reading
The simplest and most straightforward way to expand your mind and keep your brain sharp is by reading. Essayist and poet Joseph Addison was right when he said, “Reading to the mind is what exercise is to the body.” We especially grow and develop when we read books and other materials that force us to think and engage our minds. Studies have shown that a common characteristic of successful leaders and individuals is that they are readers.
It’s been said that the most ignorant among us decided they know everything they need to know, while the wisest among us decided they could never know enough. What about you — where do you fall? Mark Twain challenged us to be readers when he said, “The man who does not read has no advantage over the one who can’t read.”
3. Writing
Writing is another powerful way to sharpen the mental saw. Keeping a journal of our thoughts, experiences, and learnings promotes mental clarity. Writing letters, blogs, articles, and the like — where we go beyond the shallow and superficial — develops our ability to think clearly, organize our thoughts, and to communicate effectively so that others understand us.
4. Puzzles and Other Mental Activities
A study of American nuns and retired priests found that those who pursued various kinds of cognitive activity — including doing puzzles — were 47% less likely to develop Alzheimer’s than those who undertook such activities infrequently. So, if you want to exercise and keep your brain sharp take out your Sudoku, crossword puzzles, and jigsaw puzzles and start solving them. Challenging games like Words with Friends or Scrabble are also helpful.
Heart (Social/Emotional)
We develop and grow our social and emotional dimensions primarily by developing meaningful relationships with others. Harvard University has been conducting a nearly 80-year monumental study on the keys to happiness and health. They have identified the primary key to our long-term happiness and health. Is it fame? No. Is it wealth? No. Is it high achievement? No. What is the key? The key to long-term happiness and health is having close, loving relationships. So, how do we develop meaningful, close, and loving relationships? Here are some ideas.
Build Emotional Bank Accounts. We have emotional bank accounts with people in our lives. We can build large positive balances over time by making “deposits” into these accounts, or we can end up with negative balances by making “withdrawals.” We make deposits with our positive actions and words, including writing letters and notes, making phone calls, sending texts and social media messages, and offering small gifts, favors, and the like. We make withdrawals with negative actions and words.
Practice the Magical 5:1 Ratio. The Magical 5:1 ratio means we should have at least five positive statements or interactions with people for every negative or critical statement or interaction. Multiple independent studies have landed on the importance of the 5:1 ratio, including the landmark work by psychologist Dr. John Gottman. In one specific study using the 5:1 ratio as the standard, he and his colleagues predicted whether 700 newlywed couples would stay together or divorce by scoring each couple’s positive and negative interactions within one 15-minute conversation. Ten years later, the follow-up revealed that they had predicted divorce with 94% accuracy.
Serve Others. Former U.S. Representative Shirley Chisholm has said, “Service is the rent we pay for the privilege of living on this earth.” Serving others makes deposits into emotional bank accounts and is a win-win for us that serve and the recipients of our service. Theologian Albert Schweitzer made the point that serving leads to our happiness by observing, “I don't know what your destiny will be, but one thing I know: The only ones among you who will be really happy are those who have sought and found how to serve.”
Laugh, Have Fun, and Shed Tears When Appropriate. Laughter and having fun is good for our physical and mental health — and when done with others, it help to build better relationships. Spending enjoyable time with others eating meals, playing games, and attending fun events (e.g., concerts, sporting events, plays) all help build personal connections. There are also times when we can empathize and even shed tears when others are going through tough times. The Bible speaks about rejoicing with those that rejoice and mourning with those that mourn, and both dimensions help us build stronger connections with others.
Soul (Spiritual)
Covey describes the spiritual dimension as “your core, your center, your commitment to your value system. It’s … a supremely important [area of your life]. It draws upon the sources that inspire and uplift you and tie you to the timeless truths of all humanity. And people do it very, very differently.” He added that, for him, daily prayerful meditation on the Scriptures was important because they represent his value system (I resonate with this too).
There are a number of other things that feed our souls. Examples include nature, music, art, great literature, and service. I find that being actively involved with a faith community (my local church) is valuable to my spiritual development as I worship, love, serve, learn, encourage, and grow alongside others on the same pathway.
I would like to close with the following inspiring quote by Dr. Covey: “This is the single most powerful investment we can ever make in life — investment in ourselves, in the only instrument we have with which to deal with life and to contribute. We are the instruments of our own performance, and to be effective, we need to recognize the importance of taking time regularly to sharpen the saw in all four ways.”
Related story: The Power of Positive Teams
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Wes Friesen is a proven leader and developer of high performing teams and has extensive experience in both the corporate and non-profit worlds. A former in-plant manager, he is also an award-winning university instructor and speaker, and is the president of Solomon Training and Development, which provides leadership, management and team building training. His book, Your Team Can Soar! contains 42 valuable lessons that will inspire you, and give you practical pointers to help you—and your team—soar to new heights of performance. Your Team Can Soar! can be ordered from Xulonpress.com/bookstore or wesfriesen.com. Wes can be contacted at wesmfriesen@gmail.com.