How often do we sharpen our saws? I know for me, it isn’t often enough and I have the bad habit of continuing to push myself when my body is screaming for rest.
What does sharpen the saw mean? Here is the brief story Covey tells us at the beginning of the chapter in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People:
“Suppose you were to come upon someone in the woods working feverishly to saw down a tree.
“What are you doing?” you ask.
“Can’t you see?” comes the impatient reply. “I’m sawing down this tree.”
“You look exhausted!” you exclaim. “How long have you been at it?”
“Over five hours,” he returns, “and I’m beat! This is hard work.”
“Well, why don’t you take a break for a few minutes and sharpen that saw?” you inquire. “I’m sure it would go a lot faster.”
“I don’t have time to sharpen the saw,” the man says emphatically. “I’m too busy sawing!”
When I read that intro to the book's final chapter, I felt so called out. As things seem to happen for me anymore, a few other things popped up around this same time, giving me messages I should heed (yet ignore) when it comes to my health.
Damien and I continuously discuss how I don’t eat enough. I usually think that I do, but I recognize that I am probably low on my protein intake.
I recently had my annual bloodwork done, which indicated signs of this. So, I decided to reevaluate my macronutrient intake.
Around that same time, I also read a blog post from a scientist who is researching brain metabolism and migraine (and yes, it is migraine without an ‘s’ - just like it is asthma without an ‘s’). In the post, she talks about how our brains are some of the highest energy-consuming parts of our bodies, and those of us with migraine have an even more energy-consumptive brain. I won’t get into the other specifics of the article because I feel that people need to do their own research about what foods work or don’t work for their bodies and will, therefore, not share dietary advice here. Suffice it to say that because I have chronic migraine, my brain eats up a lot more, which, in theory, would require me to adjust my food intake accordingly - which I duly noted the nudge to sharpen my saw.
I have a very good friend who has their own health issues, and we send funny memes, videos, and GIFs to each other to lighten the mood.
The same week I read the Sharpen the Saw chapter, I sent her a video showing an opossum running down a football field with music playing and a caption of “Confidently overdoing it on a good symptom day.”
To say that it wasn’t me in that video would be a complete lie. I am so guilty of having, what I’ll call, a low-symptom day (since I don’t get any no-symptom days anymore), and totally overdoing it on that day because I “feel good” and then losing 1-3 days due to forced rest the days following. I don’t sharpen my saw.
So, I am going to work on taking the time to pause, rest, and sharpen my saw so that I can make a greater impact in my work for our clients, for our business. And since I know I am not alone in pushing through with a dull saw, I encourage you to stop and evaluate what parts of your life you need to take the time to sharpen the saw for.