Habit 7 – Sharpen the Saw
“Sharpen the Saw is essentially the habit that this book represents. It is using our unique gifts and endowments to constantly renew ourselves physically, mentally, and spiritually, and to renew our relationships. In so doing, we counteract entropy – the tendency of all things to eventually break down. One of the most effective ways to renew its through daily reflection and meditation.

You’re able to sidestep negative energy rather than give away your “space” to those people or things that seem to control or victimize you.

Habit 7 has many hard moments. For me, the hardest is to simply get up at 5:30 AM and climb aboard that stationary bike and start reading when I don’t want to – when I’m longing to get back between the sheets, and the siren call of the mattress is ever so seductive.

My next hard moment is paying the price early in the day to develop a frame of mind and hear that’s in total alignment with the vision and principles of my personal mission statement – to truly “win” a private victory.

Reflecting is like “priming the pump.” The familiar saying goes, “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.” It takes conscious effort to ponder and meditate – to slow down the rush and the urgency addiction long enough to get perspective and ask “What’s it all about?” Putting thoughts from the mind into the heart is the essence of meditation and reflection.

Plato said, The unexamined life is not worth living,” yet keeping a journal so as to observe one’s own involvement in life, distilling one’s learnings, experiences, feelings and insights, is a hard moment for many. Turning off the mindless TV viewing and getting back into a challenging, interesting, enlightening, or inspiring book is a hard moment for others.” – Stephen R. Covey