Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw

Summary

Sharpening the saw is making a something better whether that be a skill or a habit. This habit brings it all together to help you, a student, become better at each habit and how you can help yourself. Ways for doing that is staying happy and healthy, keeping your mind sharp, and making your life meaningful.

Keep Yourself Healthy and Happy 

Sometimes we focus on something for so long that we forget to take care of ourselves. Here are areas that we need to keep healthy and mindful of:

• Physical: Food, Exercise, Sleep, Hydration, Regular checkups, and Hygiene. For all of these you are keeping you healthy and better appealing to the people around you.
• Social-Emotional: Friends, Family, Study group, and Social media. These are people that you interact with everyday.
• Mental: Schoolwork, Class discussions, Lectures, Journals, Literature, and Skill development. These are things that can take up our mind
• Spiritual: Service, Meditation, Art, Music, Nature, Inspirational reading, and Religious worship. These are things that we let affect us, stuff we live by.

These four areas are all interconnecting, so if one is suffering then the others are also suffering

Keep you Mind Sharp 

Since you are in college, your mind is sharpening. You are not only learning the skills needed for your career, but you are also learning how to live on your own. Here are two ideas for staying mentally sharp:

• Stay Well-Rounded: While you are learning about your respective major, keep you kind open into learning other things. This can be as simple as reading books, researching other topics, and or doing puzzles
• Be a Lifelong Learner: Even once you are done in school you should still keep learning. Spread your knowledge over many different areas and not just your own field.

Make Your Life Meaningful

We here this a lot today, but we really need to make your life meaningful. This can mean doing something you love, making it your life and not someone else's life. To many times people go through life and don't know what they want to do with themselves. Make sure you decide what is meaningful to you and also what you enjoy to do. This also means keeping you spirit alive and well.

Sharpen the Saw in a College Students' Success

For a college student they will need all the previous 6 habits in order to really do well in school. This habit, "Sharpen the Saw", helps the student strengthen the previous habits, but also themselves. As learned in this habit, if the student keeps themselves happy and healthy then the student will be able to go far and succeed.