Seven Habits Sunday Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw
To whom can you bear your soul without fear? Who makes you laugh? Who stimulates thought? Who is amazingly generous? Whom do you like to be with? These people help you grow socially and emotionally. Do they know how important they are to you? Call them, do something with them, or write them a letter. Keep these colorful people present in your everyday life.
     -FranklinCovey Collegiate Weekly Planner

Learn more about the 7 Habits.

Labels: emotional health, habit 7, interpersonal, relationships, seven habits sunday, sharpen the saw, social, the 7 habits of highly effective people

  ¶ Posted by Mark @ 3:12 AM |  0 comments

  Leadership Weekend

When you discover your mission, you will feel its demand. It will fill you with enthusiasm and a burning desire to get to work on it.
    -W. Clement Stone


A man who is at the top is a man who has the habit of getting to the bottom.
    -Joseph E. Rogers

Labels: inspiration, joseph rogers, leadership, leadership weekend, mission, motivation, success, w. clement stone

  ¶ Posted by Mark @ 6:42 PM |  0 comments

  Inside Out Friday: Getting Ready to Move Organizational wisdom from Julie Morgenstern:

Keep only what you use and love.
    -Organizing from the Inside Out Cards

Great advice. I moved yesterday. Halfway, anyways. As mentioned before, I did a serious re-evaluation of my possessions in anticipation of this move.

Also, in recognition of the huge amount of junk I've accumulated, I took the above advice. I had so, so many notebooks, old papers (business, personal, and academic), books, magazines, art supplies, office supplies, weird electronics cables and connectors, hardware I've never used, and dozens of things I hadn't laid eyes upon since before three moves ago.

I asked myself these questions:

1. Have I used this within the last year?
2. Will I need to use it within the next six months?
3. If the answers to 1 & 2 are "No," do I like this enough to hang onto it?

By being ruthlessly honest, I cut the amount of stuff in my room by over 75% (by weight or by volume). The benefits go beyond an easier move. More Julie:

Insider's Tip: What is the disorder costing you? Realtors regard "first impression" improvements such as decluttering closets to be one of the smartest ways to speed the sale of a home and fetch a better price, according to the New York State Association of Realtors.
    -Organizing from the Inside Out

Well, I'm not selling my rented dorm room, to be sure, but I can see how even a buyer (who isn't buying your stuff, after all) would get good vibes just by seeing an orderly space. I now have a clearer idea of what I have; I could more readily see my way around my space before moving out, and I can find what I need now (even though most of it is packed). With a clear image of where everything will go in my home for the new school year--something that's possible when there are relatively few items and a good idea what they all are--I have a better "End In Mind" for the move. I have more enthusiasm for using what I have, and more joy in having it. And, in the meantime, I generated a little spending money by selling some of my possessions, and a lot of good feelings by giving many more to Goodwill.

On Fridays, I take a break from the 7 Habits theme of the blog to focus on the thinking of Julie Morgenstern, author, consultant, and expert in organization and time-management. Julie's books preach an "inside-out" approach to these subjects, which mirrors Stephen Covey's approach to the Habits.

Labels: clutter, dorm, goodwill, julie morgenstern, moving, organization, student life, stuff

  ¶ Posted by Mark @ 9:14 AM |  0 comments

  Is "Current Reality" the Ninth Habit? (Or maybe Habit 2.5?) I'm in the process of moving; I am a full-time student, and I live on campus. Summer housing ends today, but my fall room isn't available until next Thursday, so I packed up everything over the past 72 hours in anticipation of leaving this afternoon. After my room inspection at 3:00 PM (to ensure that I didn't knock out a wall or steal the electrical fixtures...), I head northeast to stash my belongings in my relatives' garage, then on to the beach to finally enjoy some of the super-hot weather we've been having.

As I packed, I went through a fairly ruthless process of evaluating what I had, and getting rid of a bunch of it (more on that process tomorrow). It was both invigorating and draining, but I found I had a clearer idea of what I owned, what it meant, and what I intended to do with it. And, interestingly, this process was as inspiring as spending an afternoon reviewing and editing my mission statement, or mapping out a goal.

All of this made me wonder if the Habits, as useful as they are, are missing a step; the Habits do ask us to introspect and to be true to ourselves, but the emphasis is often on principles, values, choices, and future plans. The book frequently asks us to think about the state of things--our health, our relationship, our life relative to our mission--but this is sort of a secondary exercise. It's never the main point.

I wonder if another Habit is called for: a habit of honest evaluation. Call it "Seeing Clearly" or "Taking Stock" or "Measuring Reality" or whatever; the point is, isn't mapping out the current reality is as important as beginning with the end in mind? Stephen Covey often talks about maps as a metaphor, stressing that we need the correct map (i.e., correct paradigms, principles, values, etc.) in order to navigate. The thing about a map, though (and I have to credit David Allen for this notion), in order for a map to be useful, you must know not only where you are going, but where you are. Dr. Covey makes the point that having a map of Los Angeles wouldn't be much help if you're trying to navigate in Chicago; I would submit that having a map of either city--or even turn-by-turn directions--would be useless unless and until you correctly identify where you are on the map. The starting point is worth considering, as it impacts us as we start to identify and make our choices (Habit 1: Be Proactive), decide on the best destination (Habit 2: Begin With the End in Mind), and take the steps to get there (Habit 3: Put First Things First).

Would this be the "Ninth Habit" to which my blog title refers? I doubt it. I actually didn't have one in mind when I started a few days ago. While I'm intrigued by this line of thought, I don't know if I would elevate this idea to the level of Habit. Maybe it's an accessory to 2, or 3. Call it Habit 2.5.

So, how do you get started with Habit 2.5? I don't know if it's best to do it before or after you finish a mission statement or goal (though it might help to start here if you're stuck), but it seems to me that it's a good thing to do before you get to Habit 3. I would begin by answering these questions:

• What's true for you right now--in your personal life, work life, family life, spiritual life, community life, etc.?


• How are your relationships with the important people in your life?


• What's in your physical environment that you need to deal with?


• What is missing, broken, or in the wrong place (physically or mentally)?


• Are there any important conversations you're avoiding having with one of the key people in your life?


• What do you own that you're under-utilizing?


• Where is your health--physical, mental, emotional, social, and spiritual?


• What's the current status of your projects and goals?


• What is true for you that isn't addressed in your mission statement?

Having just prepared for a move, I've handled almost all of my physical possessions within the past 72 hours. There's a lot of data about my life--where I am, and how far I've come--revealed in that process (much of which isn't reflected in my mission, roles, or value statements). Some of this isn't among my "First Things," but that doesn't mean it can't or won't affect my pursuit of those first things. I feel I have more of a grasp on at least part of my reality, and I'll be looking to explore more of the questions above in the days and weeks to come.

The ideas in this post were influenced by the following books; the two David Allen titles may give you more ideas for creating an accurate map of your current location.
    

Labels: 7 habits, david allen, getting things done, gtd, habit 2, habit 2.5, habit 3, maps, moving, paradigms, ready for anything, reality, stephen covey, the 7 habits of highly effective people

  ¶ Posted by Mark @ 9:55 AM |  0 comments

  Beginning at the End: Which Habit do you start with? Where do you start with the Habits?

I always try to start at the end, to work on Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw, before going back to work on the earlier ones. (Granted, the book encourages us to "Begin With the End in Mind," but I'm not sure this is what it meant!) So it is with my recent re-commitment to explore the Habits--I made the ultimate Habit (or penultimate, considering there's an eighth) the foundation of my exploration.

Habit 7 is about renewal, about recreation and exercise to build our capacities. The idea is to maintain and even expand our physical, social/emotional, spiritual, and mental capacities. It exhorts us to exercise, eat right, sleep and hydrate properly, attend to our health; to cultivate strong, fulfilling relationships; to get in touch with our mission, values, purpose, and the principles of our religious or spiritual tradition; and to study, read, write, learn, and grow intellectually.

Stephen Covey's original arrangement of the material makes immanent sense, of course; starting with Habit 1: Be Proactive (the habit of choice, of personal responsibility) and then working through the levels of planning, action, and then interpersonal attitudes is practical, as each builds on the preceding one. Still, even Dr. Covey recognized that Habit 7 has a special place; that's why in his 7 Habits diagram, it encircles the other six (see diagram, left).

In a two-CD abridgement¹ of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and The 8th Habit, he makes this point:

Sometimes, it helps to focus on a single habit. You don’t try to change everything at once. However, you will find that the habits are so interwoven, that any time you begin to work on one of them in a significant, deep way, it will affect all of the rest. But start with those things that are most important for you to work on right now.

So, with the Covey blessing, I tend to ignore for the moment the sequential nature of the Habits, and go straight for the 7th.

I believe that Habit 7 is as foundational as Habit 1; the latter, granted, is the habit of acknowledging our choice and responsibility, and it might be argued that we must be proactive in order to make the hard choices and to keep up the discipline of exercise and learning that Habit 7 requires. On the other hand, Habit 7--when pursued consistently--also improves our energy, our understanding of others, our talents and sense of purpose. All of which, I would argue, strengthen our ability to be proactive in the first place.

Dr. Covey has also said and written on numerous occasions that faithful attention to Habit 7 automatically strengthens the other six; by that logic, it seem to me that we should all be starting on 7, because we'll be much stronger when we move on to the others.

Still, no matter how universal the principles behind the habits may be, one of those same principles is that differences exist and are valuable; so, I pose these questions:

• Where do you tend to start when you renew your commitment to the Habits?
• If you've always been a "Start at the start" kind of person, but have never quite gotten the results you want from the 7 Habits, are you open to considering picking one of the others and beginning there?
• Do you agree with the structure and sequence that Dr. Covey offers, or do you feel the relationship among the Habits calls for a different approach?

I would be very curious to hear your answers to these questions. In the near future, I will write about what I've been doing lately to Sharpen the Saw in my own life.

1 - This particular edition, ISBN 1929494858, was sold through FranklinCovey's retail stores; it appears to no longer be available through Amazon or FranklinCovey's website. Several other abridged and unabridged editions of both the 7 Habits and the 8th Habit are still available; also, there is a standalone audio book that may contain the audio referred to above.

Labels: be proactive, capacities, emotional, growth, habit 1, habit 7, mental, physical, renewal, sequence, sharpen the saw, social, spiritual, stephen covey, the 7 habits of highly effective people

  ¶ Posted by Mark @ 7:44 AM |  0 comments

  On Buying Textbooks: A lesson in Proactivity A new semester begins in two weeks, and so yesterday I went to the lovely building pictured here and engaged in a time-honored ritual: Deciding to buy my textbooks a couple of weeks early and read ahead, only to discover that fewer than half of the required tomes are available at the campus bookstore.

At least, that's how the story usually goes. I average about three trips to the bookstore per term: My early attempt, a second visit the Sunday before classes begin, and at least one visit after classes commence to get the inevitable straggler book. On Sunday, as I was reviewing my projects, goals, and appointments for the week, I saw the "Buy Textbooks" item and mentally started cursing the bookstore. I assumed, per the usual course of events, that not nearly all my books would be available. I imagined myself screaming at the clerks in the aisles, terrorizing the cashier, and raising all manner of hell. I fantasized about the scathing letter I would write to management and the University, the editorial I'd submit to the student paper that would whip the whole campus into a fury...

Then, as my rage and imagination were about to run amok several facts dawned on me:

1. For starters, I didn't even know for sure whether or not my books were in. Maybe I would be in luck this time--in which case all of my pre-shopping rage was wasted energy.
2. Secondly, even if the bookstore was doing their usual mediocre job, there would be plenty of time to deal with it afterwards (and, it should be noted, there are vastly more constructive ways of dealing with it).
3. Finally, however inconvenient it may be by my standards, the vast majority of students do not have any desire to buy their textbooks this far ahead of schedule. What I'm asking for is, in fact, actually fairly extraordinary service.

The last point is hardly consolation, of course; here I am, trying to be responsible and prepare for class, and the monopolistic textbook conglomerate is thwarting my efforts.

The irony is that I was torturing myself over the fact that the bookstore was preventing me from doing the responsible, proactive thing in the traditional sense of those terms; in response, however, I was failing to be responsible or proactive in the 7 Habits sense of the terms. I was not taking responsibility for my own response; I was not being proactive in the sense of acknowledging that the choice of actions was still my own.

I decided, then, that there were several measured ways I could respond if I was denied the opportunity to study ahead:

• Typically, at least one of my textbooks is available this early; if only one of two were, I would endeavor to read a text in its entirety before the first day of class. Though I would not be ahead in all of my classes as I'd prefer, I would have the satisfaction of knowing I could coast for the rest of the term in that one class.
• I could re-read one or two of my textbooks from last year. I enjoyed my Social Psychology text immensely, but haven't cracked it open in over eight months. I also have a Cognitive Psychology book that remained criminally underused during its course last spring.
• Finally, I could take the opportunity to act on the situation: Writing a reasoned letter to the management of the bookstore, sending an anonymous note to the professors involved about the importance of timely ordering, writing a thank-you note to any professors whose books were in for having the foresight to order in a timely fashion, etc.

Within a few moments of flexing my "proactive muscles," I felt vastly better. I knew that, for once, the experience of having to wait on textbooks would not cause me undue stress or anger, and that I was going to have a great couple of weeks preparing for a new term of study.

I think this exercise paid off, too; in fact, only half of my books were available, but I had a pleasant conversation with the bookstore employee who helped me, and left the store at peace and with a smile on my face. In semesters past, I would have left scowling with a raging storm inside; I'm sure my levels of joy and productivity during the rest of the day were much improved due to this little shift.

More ideas about Being Proactive can be found here:
          

Labels: be proactive, college, follett, habit 1, initiative, proactivity, responsibility, stephen covey, textooks, the 7 habits of highly effective people, university

  ¶ Posted by Mark @ 1:30 PM |  0 comments

  The First Creation: Welcome to my blog.
"All things are created twice," writes Dr. Covey in explaining "Begin With the End In Mind," the second of the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. The First Creation is a mental creation--a blueprint, plan, vision, or program--and the Second is a physical creation. Sometimes, the First Creation is a whim or scripting from our earlier experiences, but there are always two creations. By bringing our capacities of imagination, self-awareness, independent will, and conscience to bear, we can take control of the First Creation and have much more effective second creations, or so the theory goes.

A recent post at The Covey Chronicles explains it in far greater depth, but that's the gist. In keeping with that notion, and in keeping with my renewed interest in FranklinCovey-style planning and time-management and the 7 Habits themselves, I will begin this blog with a deliberate First Creation.

The purpose of The 9th Habit will include:

1. To provide an outlet for my thoughts on the 7 Habits framework.


2. To showcase and review certain FranklinCovey products.


3. To encourage discussion about the 7 Habits framework, including limitations or challenges inherent in its assumptions, underlying worldview, or potential application.


4. To document my own progress and struggles in implementing the habits and creating a meaningful, fun, and productive life.


5. To attract and foster a community of diverse people with differing points of view to synergistically create not only a deeper understanding of the principles Covey teaches, but of life in general.


6. To provide continuing motivation to explore the Habits and improve my implementation of them.


7. To creatively supplement my income.


8. To serve others who are looking for better lives by helping to spread the ideas that work for me in my life.


9. To deepen my understanding of the habits by teaching the material--teaching, as Dr. Covey so often reminds his audience, is the best way to learn.

Blogging seems to be a good platform to explore the Habits--Dr. Covey encourages introspection, and blogging encourages naval-gazing; it's a match made in Heaven!

In pursuit of the above purposes, I will set a number of goals. The first is a modest, but important, one:

• To update my blog regularly (5 times per week or more) for 30 days.

So, that's why I'm here; why are you here?

Labels: 7 habits, begin with the end in mind, blogging, covey, franklincovey, goals, habit 2, stephen covey, the 7 habits of highly effective people

  ¶ Posted by Mark @ 8:43 AM |  0 comments