Sharpen the Saw

In The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Steven Covey calls it “sharpening the saw.” In the vernacular of the origin story, “We’re too busy writing to get better at writing.” I think it’s not just the writing that’s the problem, just like it’s not the erstwhile lumberjack’s saw that’s the problem. It’s his perspective.

Covey talks about the four dimensions of saw sharpening, and I’ve been thinking about them a lot lately. Winter – my favorite season – is not the kindest season to me. It’s when the dark outside comes indoors to hang out with me. I’ve been keeping records for the last few years, and it’s clear: Between the winter solstice and the vernal equinox, my saw gets pretty dull. We just passed the solstice, and I’ve been reviewing my toolbox.

Physically, I wasn’t doing well. Didn’t get my exercise. Ate too much. Put on weight. Yada, yada, yada. Age-old story with no happy ending. Starting in May, I decided I wasn’t going to go without a fight. I set a goal for myself in June: walk 100 miles in the month. Four miles a day for 25 days. Easy, right? I made 102, and the days I dropped were all early in the month.

Can we talk about sleep for about seven or eight hours? Yeah. Who knew?

And I started making my own non-fat yogurt. Icelandic recipe for “skyr.” Lovely stuff. I get a kick out of making my own, and it’s a treat I can give myself with fresh fruit and a sprinkle of granola. (It also fed the third dimension by giving me something new to learn, but I’m getting ahead of myself.)

That’s the first dimension. Exercise, diet, sleep. Common sense, right? The stuff we all know we should do because it’ll keep us alive and writing. The stuff that goes out the window when time pressures hit, deadlines tie us in knots, and words refuse to appear on the screen on demand.

The second dimension Covey talks about – the spiritual one – falls into some level of woo. I started using a meditation app on my phone a few years ago. Quite a few now, because I had worked up to over 1000 consecutive days of meditation. And then I missed a day. My fault. I was on the road and forgot one night. By the time I got back to it, the counter had reset to 1.

Yeah, I stopped pretty much all meditation after that.

But I got back on the horse in May, and now I’m less concerned about the number of days, only that the number keeps increasing. It’s a lot easier to get back into it than it was to start to begin with. I suspect that’s true of all spiritual practice, whether it’s religion, meditation, martial arts, or just fostering an attitude of gratitude. It’s easier to go back to step one than to start from zero.

The mental dimension is probably the one writers think of first. Hone the craft. Take a class. Try a new form. Read the masters. But there’s also a kind of “fill the well” corollary to this in that part of the mental dimension involves actively seeking inspiration. Maybe it’s a trip. Maybe it’s a concert. Maybe it’s nothing more than giving yourself permission to get up and watch the sunrise.

I’ve been ignoring my mental dimension for a while. Last month’s blog post about looking for underrepresented voices grew out of my search for new inspiration. New ideas. New stories. And I found them.

Last but not least, Covey suggests the social/emotional dimension could be critical to success. Unpacking this can be a struggle. I’m the worst when it comes to social stuff. I love it when it happens, but I seldom get out of my comfort zone. My venues are almost all digital. A few times a year I venture out of my basement. I’ll be at the Colorado Gold conference this year. I’ve been to the Nebulas a couple of times. I enjoy a weekend away at MileHiCon every year.

Emotional stability has always been a challenge for me, but I’ve noticed that as I get my physical ducks quacking in the same direction, my meditation back on track, and my gray matter stimulated, the emotional struggles have all started to seem a lot less struggle-y and maybe even manageable.

But I had to decide that I needed to sharpen my saw. I worked up to it slowly. I gave myself measurable tasks. I kept track in my journal so I would know how it worked over time.

So far, so good.

Now, what about you? Summer’s in full swing. The heat is on – literally, figuratively, and emotionally. We’ve passed the summer solstice, and the days are already noticeably shorter. Everybody I know is busy trying to write the next book, the next story. But what about the saw? What will you do to keep your saw sharpened in all four dimensions?

Photo by Philip Swinburn on Unsplash