Daily Self-Renewal
Daily self-renewal comes from Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw?
With this, we come to the final installment in my series of blogs on each of Stephen R. Covey’s?7 Habits of Effective People. This last Habit is a capstone, one that makes all the others possible when put into daily practice.
At the risk of stating the obvious, the 7 Habits are about effectiveness in your work and life. And sometimes, it can feel as though being truly effective means spending every possible moment working. You are pursuing your goals and your dreams and focusing on producing results.
That is not the case. The sharpest tool in the toolbox still needs sharpening. The most advanced battery in the world still needs recharging. And the most powerful engines still need to be tuned up.
Habit 7 invites you to recognize how important it is to Sharpen the Saw?. The saw, in this case, is?you.
Human beings aren’t designed for uninterrupted productivity and effort. We need to look after ourselves and our well-being. This Habit is about developing a daily – yes,?daily?– practice to do just that. Only through daily self-renewal can we sustain the energy we need to continue to practice the other Habits.
Four Areas of Daily Self-Renewal
In Covey’s framework, there are four areas in which we need this renewal: the body, the mind, the heart, and the spirit.
Renew the Body
To renew the body is to give it the activity and exercise it needs to stay fit, the healthy nutrition it needs for energy, and the rest it needs to recuperate. That last one is important, and it can be easy to overlook. It may seem counterintuitive, but sometimes the most effective thing we can do is to take a break, rest, and recover.
Renew the Mind
To renew the mind is to develop our knowledge and understanding. We can do this in many ways: by reading interesting books and articles, engaging in self-study and online research, taking formal courses and classes, and writing and journaling to help us contextualize and understand ourselves and our lives.
Renew the Heart
To renew the heart is to invest energy in the important relationships in our lives. In Covey’s terms, to make deposits in the Emotional Bank Accounts of those relationships. Spending quality time with people who are important to us gives our hearts the social connectedness we humans need.
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Renew the Spirit
Finally, to renew the spirit is to restore our sense of wonder and awe and our sense of place in the world. For some people, this can include a formal religious practice. For others, it may be meditation or spending time in nature. And for some, it’s giving back – volunteering in the community to create a better world.
[A personal aside:?I created my?website?during the pandemic to post encouraging and uplifting quotes daily. I called the blogs?Positive Thoughts, and I published one every day from the early days of the pandemic until December 2021. As of January 2022, I publish one a week. I also started publishing an?article?a week, as evidenced here. The articles alternate between personal development, recruiting, and productivity topics. During the pandemic, I chose each quote and added them to a beautiful photo that supported the message. For me, these activities satisfied three out of the four areas of renewal: mind, spirit, and heart.]
Incorporating Daily Self-Renewal into Your Daily Life
There are many ways to incorporate this renewal into your daily life. You might choose one each day and cycle through, or you could devote a bit of time each day to two or more. Making this a habit just means committing some time, every day, to at least some of these areas. To renew, refresh, and sharpen your saw.
I’d love to hear from you on this. What are some of your favorite ways to renew? What practices have you implemented in your life to serve your body, mind, heart, and spirit?
Additional Resources for Daily Self-Renewal
JimNewcomb.com?Blog,?Inspiration, and?Resources.
JimNewcomb.com:?The 7-Habit Blog Series
FranklinCovey?is a coaching company that?resulted?from the merger of Franklin Quest Co., which focused on time management, and Steven R. Cove and Associates, which offered leadership seminars based on?The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.
Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw??is a Registered trademark of Franklin Covey Co. Jim Newcomb and Goodwin Recruiting are not associated with Franklin Covey Co.