“Sharpen the Saw means preserving and enhancing the greatest asset you have—YOU” – Steven Covey
How are you settling in to your new normal way of living and working? Yesterday, I spoke to an acquaintance, based in Paris and this was her fourth week of being indoors! While trusting God that these days will be shortened, our current reality is that most governments are likely to extend the current full or partial lockdown for at least another 15 – 30 days! I am however confident that this too shall pass. How you come out of this experience is mostly dependent on the things you do and do not do.
I was reminded of the “Sharpen the Saw” phrase while I listened to a podcast during my weekly 13km brisk walk early this morning in one of my favourite spots – Karura Forest. I thought to myself, “this is exactly what I need to be intentional about during this time,” and I am sure with you as well. Sharpen the Saw is the 7th Habit in the late Steven Covey’s International best seller – The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. There can be no better time than this time to intentionally work on sharpening your saw – which is to preserve and enhance the greatest asset you have – YOU. Some assets you own, most likely have reduced in value; business revenues in almost all sectors will experience a decline, albeit it temporarily. However the only asset, which if you use this time wisely, can increase in value, if you are intentional about it.
Covey taught that there are four areas of your life that you can be intentional to expand. They are:
- Physical: This involves taking care of your
physical body. Examples include beneficial and healthy eating,
exercising, resting and stress management. It is especially important at
this time that you are intentional about not being anxious about the future of
your business or your job to increase your stress-levels and could lead to one
form of illness or the other.
- Social/Emotional: This requires you to go out of your way
to make social and meaningful connections with others. The default mode
is to be a couch potato and flip channels watching the news channels or one
Netflix movie after another.
- Mental: This extended period at home is an
excellent opportunity to expand your knowledge by, for example learning,
reading, writing, and teaching. You are never too old to learn something
new, especially as the world we live continues to change rapidly.
- Spiritual: As a woman of faith, this for me, is the most important area that I can be intentional about expanding myself. You can expand your spiritual self through prayer, meditation, music, art, and service.
The easiest way to expand yourself in these four areas is to decide on one or two goals in each of the areas and schedule it in your calendar. You can all use your phone timer to remind you of this goals everyday, if you need to.
If you fast -forward to ninety days from now and you imbibed some new disciplines, you will look back at this time as a time of immense growth which will reap long-lasting benefits for you.
Question: What one new goal will you imbibe to expand your physical, emotional, mental and spiritual life during this COVID-19 pandemic?