Session 5 - 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

7 Habits - Book Study Session 5

Maggie Flemming led the discussion on Habit 7 as we concluded our study of this book.

Habit 7 is Sharpen the Saw: Principles of Balanced Self-Renewal.  Using the four words suggested by Covey, Physical, Mental, Spiritual, Social/Emotional, Maggie challenged those attending to think about how to re-phrase these 4 areas in a way that was personally meaningful.  This led to the conversation about each of the areas and our own personal understanding of the area and, of course, how much balance we are experiencing among the four areas.

Probably the area receiving the most attention was the Physical Dimension.  Focused on Exercise, Nutrition, & Stress Management, I think we all agreed this is an area where there is room for improvement.  We learned that some literally hate exercise and that finding balance in this area has been a challenge.  Still, from Covey’s explanation I think we all came to see that if we ignore this area it adversely affects us in other areas and makes it difficult for us to be truly effective.  Eating nutritiously is a big part of this, but, unfortunately so is exercise.  Like in all things finding the right balance so that it compliments the whole rather than becomes an obsession probably will require more effort than any of the other areas.

The Mental Dimension encourages us to do the right things to keep our minds active.  I like to play sudoku and other puzzle games help.  I have also found it useful to keep four books going at any one time:  one that focuses on leadership, one that is professional related to my work, one that is spiritual/devotional, and a novel.  I have found this keeps my mind active and opens up new thoughts and ideas.  Whatever we do, it won’t happen accidently so, again, this will require us to exercise that habit of proactivity.

Spiritual Dimension.  Maggie encouraged us to think about this in different ways depending on your understanding of “spiritual.”  She suggested values or conscience as another way of thinking about this dimension.  We didn’t discuss this much but I certainly believe that we are created with a spiritual dimension and that to ignore this is to basically eliminate a major portion of our self.  Since we are doing this around Christmas: think Scrouge and you’ll get the picture.

The final dimension was the Social/Emotional.  Here Maggie equated this with relationships and I heartily agree with her.  The importance of balanced attention to our relationships cannot be overstated.  The impact of how we script others through our actions/words as well as how we ourselves are scripted was discussed.  Understanding ourselves and our own values helps us to avoid the negative scripting of others; it also helps us to avoid negatively scripting others.

If you have a story or thought to share about any of the four area, please comment in reply to this post.

All in all this was an excellent study and Gordon even recommended that all new hires be required to participate in a study of this book within their first year of employment.

The next study will be announced soon.