Suppose you come upon a man in the woods feverishly sawing down a tree. “You look exhausted!” you exclaim. “How long have you been at it?” “Over five hours,” he replies, “and I am beat. This is hard.” “Maybe you could take a break for a few minutes an sharpen that saw. Then the work would go faster.” “No time,” the man says emphatically. “I’m too busy sawing.” Habit seven is taking time to sharpen the saw (you’re the saw). It’s the habit that makes all the others possible. To sharpen the saw means renewing ourselves, in all four aspects of our natures: Physical - exercise, nutrition, stress management; Mental - reading, visualizing, planning, writing; Social/Emotional - service, empathy, synergy, security; Spiritual - spiritual reading, study, and meditation; To exercise in all these necessary dimensions, we must be proactive. No one can do it for us or make it urgent for us; it is a quadrant IV activity. For instance, exercise is a typical, high- leverage, quadrant II activity that most of us don’t do consistently enough. We think we don’t have time to exercise. What distorted thinking! We don’t have time not to. We’re talking about three to six hours a week. That’s a drop in the bucket compared with the enormous, beneficial impact on the other 162-plus hours in the week. Be proactive. If it’s mining on the morning you’ve scheduled to jog, do it anyway. “Oh good!” you’ll cry. “It’s raining! I get to develop my willpower as well as my body.” Reading for your work and planning require their own allotment of quadrant II time; and you obviously must be wise enough not to “sacrifice” much for your profession that you neglect your family, friends, and community. Taking care of your spiritual dimension renews your core, your center, your commitment to all your principles. People do this in a variety of ways. Some meditate on the scriptures. Others immerse themselves in great literature or music, or commune with nature. To become strong, renew the spirit.
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