Image courtesy of nattu

Why Self Renewal is Important?

A man(A) was sawing down a tree and there come upon a guy(B) asking,
B:What are you doing?
A:I’m sawing a tree.
B:How long have you been at it?
A:4 hours so far, but I’m really making progress
B:Your saw looks really dull, why don’t you take a break and sharpen it?
A:I can’t you idiot. I’m too busy sawing!

Story from Sean Covey’s The 7 Habits Of Highly Effective Teens

Who is the real idiot here? Your probably guessed it. Guy A! He will probably make 3 times more progress in the same amount of time if he just take a rest and sharpen the saw.

How many of you are guilty of being too busy to renew yourselves? Being too busy in work and neglected take care of your health by exercising or bringing your work back to home and lessen your time spent with family. Just like a car that needs regular servicing, we need regular rest and time out to rejuvenate ourselves.

Balance

Imagine a table with 4 legs. What if one of the legs is broken. Is it still possible for the table to keep standing? Maybe yes, but we know that the balance of the table with 3 legs is not as good as a table with 4 legs.

The 4 legs are…

1.Body

2.Brain

3.Heart

4.Soul

Life is just like a table, we need to keep up with our balancing act to maintain our balance. When any of the legs is gone, we are bound to lose our balance. It is important to maintain our balance because one dimension of our life can affect the other 3 dimensions. It is not possible to be happy(heart) when you are in a sickly(body) condition nor it is possible to focus on your studies(mind) when you are tired(body).

Caring for your body

Are you taking care of your body? Are you eating healthily and exercising regularly to maintain your body in good condition? How about sleep? Do you have good sleeping habits?

Our body is really a magnificent machine. We can choose to take care of it or abuse it. We can either control it or let it control us. There will be no doubt that if we take care of it, it will take care of us in the long run.

Why don’t you take up sports that interest you or join your local community gyms or go for yoga. The important thing is to find an activity that interest you, so that you can do it for the long run. It does not matter what is the “in thing” to do now. If the “in thing” is to join a gym for weight lifting sessions and you totally have no interest in it, most probably you won’t stick to your exercise regime.

We are what we eat, so do mind your diet. You can still eat the burgers and fries or the occasional ice cream, just don’t make it an everyday fare. The best advice is to eat in moderation. If you need a guideline, the food pyramid will be a good guiding plan.

Caring for your brain.

Our future are determine by how strong our brain is. So how do we have a strong brain? The relentless pursuit of education will provide us with a strong brain. Whether it is getting a degree or learning a new skill, be sure to pursue an education and you can definitely reap the benefits later.

Don’t ever think that education is expensive and be reluctant to spend money on it, because being ignorant is more costly.

“If you think education is expensive, try ignorance”
Derek Bok

Even if you need to work doubly hard to get the money for your education, do it. It will definitely turn out to be worth it. Some other ways you can expand your mind is to keep on reading(newspaper or magazine), engaging in challenging board games or watch TV programs that shows useful information such as the Discovery Channel.

Caring for your heart.

Caring for your heart is actually building relationships with others and yourself. Building relationships with others will include actions such as keeping promises, no backstabbing, loyal, and doing small act of kindness.

Another important aspect is to build relationship with yourself. What is worst than you don’t even trust yourself? Always keep your own promises to yourself and don’t ever over commit. I am guilty of this too. If you know that you can’t complete all the tasks that you set for yourself, why bother adding more tasks into your to do list? Instead keep a “Maybe list” and leave those tasks there. If you have the time, you will then go and complete it. This ensure that you do not break your own promises and also help in getting things done.

Start a collection of great jokes or comedies. So whenever you feel that you need a great laugh, refer back to your humor collections and start laughing. Laughing will help us to to relax and reduce our stress level.

Caring for your soul

For me, going for a walk in the park, reading inspiring books and watching inspiring movies can help me to nourish my soul. Being close to nature helps too. It never fail to let me have the feeling of tranquility and I always feel refresh after it.

Taking the time out to meditate, pray or reflect, definitely help you to feel more connected to yourself. Just choose the one that works for you.

I personally don’t keep a journal but I have heard lots of positive feedback from people who keep a journal. Maybe it is time to try to keep one and having a journal definitely help to increase our level of awareness because we can always see our growth and progress written in it.

Someone asked Abraham Lincoln,”What would you do if you had 8 hours to cut down a tree?” He replied, “I’d spend the first 4 hours sharpening the saw.”

Are you sharpening your saw and making sure that your life is in balance on 4 pillars?

Vincent
Personal Development Blogger

**P.S**What are your ways of renewing yourself? Are you so busy that you do not take time off for yourself to sharpen your saw?

If you like this article, it will be great to digg, stumble or bookmark it in de.li.cious. You can have my latest articles sent to your email or RSS reader by subscribing to my RSS feed or Email updates. (It is free!)

Hit Your Goals Home|Personal Development Blog

Post from: Health Money Success

What Everyone Ought To Know About Renewing Yourself

Related Articles

• The One Big Tip You Are Looking For In Your Personal Development Journey (7)
• The Biggest Mistake You Can Make In Your Personal Development Journey (And What You Can Do To Get Fast Results) (5)
• Biggest Mistake You Can Make To Stun Your Growth: Are You Being Choosy On Your Tasks? (8)
• Warning: Don’t Let Your Human Instinct Stop You From Achieving Success (16)
• 6 Things That I Had Learnt From Playing Games (13)