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Steven Covey’s last habit in his acclaimed book, “7 Habits
of Highly Effective People” is, he suggests, perhaps the most important
of the seven, in that it makes all the others possible. He calls this habit, “The
Habit of Self-Renewal” or, as he also puts it, “sharpening the
saw”.
Well, what does this mean? It means preserving
and enhancing the greatest asset you have – yourself. When we’re
busy working and running our companies, few of us take the time
to sharpen the saw, because personal maintenance seldom leads
to immediate, dramatic returns. Too often we push ourselves to
produce the desired results, but fail to maintain, let alone
build up, our producing capacity.
Dr. Covey suggests there are four areas of our lives
to which we should pay disciplined attention – the physical, the
social/emotional, the mental and the spiritual. The physical is the body,
building strength through good nutrition, exercise and rest. The social/emotional
involves working on our key relationships, spending time with family,
friends and also employees. The mental we exercise through taking time
out to think, reading and writing. And finally our spiritual self we develop
through inspiring literature, meditation or prayer and through spending
time with nature.
He goes on to say we should dedicate a minimum of one hour a day to our
self-renewal. How many of us can afford the time to do this? How many can
really afford not to?
How will you start taking better care of yourself?
If you would like to find out more about coaching/mentoring
and whether it’s right for you, call 0845 658 0940
or e-mail consultation@coachforsuccess.biz to
arrange a no obligation, 30 minute consultation call.
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