Sharpen the (chain)Saw: Week 7

"I never let school interfere with my education." - Mark Twain


The 7th Covey Habit is Sharpen the Saw. The analogy -- if you spend all your time cutting down trees and never take the time to sharpen your saw, eventually your saw will dull and you won't be able to cut down any more trees. Taking time off, or a well-deserved vacation can be "sharpening" activities, but even better is taking the time to improve yourself, especially education and skill-building. Lifelong learning is something I embrace wholeheartedly. Lifehack lists 15 steps to lifelong learning. They make a lot of sense to me.

Getting On and Off and Back on the Wagon
My last entry was over a month ago. Several things conspired to knock me off course, a major project at work for which I stared working nights and weekends, getting sick with a cold that turned into bronchitis, the Christmas and New Year's holidays. I was also knocked off course by winter. My morning exercise suffered. It was too cold and rainy to go outside.

Winter Makes you SAD
More than that is seems winter itself is a downer. Research shows As daylight wanes, millions begin to feel depressed, sluggish and socially withdrawn. They also tend to sleep more and eat more. By spring or summer the symptoms abate, only to return the next autumn. There's a name for this -- seasonal affective disorder or SAD. For many winter does literally makes you SAD.

Our Greatest Glory
If you are trying to accomplish something it's guaranteed there will be obstacles, both internal and external, that can lead to failure. However, one of the greatest educators in history, Confucius, says -- “Our greatest glory is not in never falling but in rising every time we fall”.

Or as Kitty Karr, Covey trainer, wrote me in an email "don't give up just cuz you had a bad week, the next week (actually, the next DAY) is a chance to get back on the bandwagon!




Why Chainsaw
I picked the video of the chainsaw sculptor to start this piece because it shows what you can do with a properly sharpened saw. Also, in keeping with the fire/firefighter theme of this blog, the chainsaw is one of the main tools use to fight fires. Most of all it shows how something mundane can be used to create a work of art. This epitomizes the Covey spirit of making our mundane lives into a work of art through how we approach each day.

I want to create a masterpiece with mine.