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Sharpen Your Saw by Going Fishing

By Patrick Thean

dateWed, Nov 14, 2012 @ 11:10 AM

Stephen Covey's 7th habit is to "sharpen the saw."  This habit is about rejuvenating yourself and your teams.  It's about working on being stronger, better, faster instead of using pure brute force to succeed.  Brute force allows you to succeed for a time and maybe even for a season.   But, then you get tired and it seems like it takes longer to get things done.  That's working with a blunt saw!   For continuous success that builds upon itself, you must stop, rest, and sharpen your saw.  

K.C. Walsh, CEO of Simms Fishing, shared with me that they get better and stronger when they are able to go fishing.  By the way, the folks at Simms Fishing love to fish.  That's one of the gone fishing1many reasons they are so uncompromising on the quality of their fishing products, driving them to become the leading brand in Fly Fishing.  We discussed that a good way to ensure the team is rejuvenated regularly is to count the number of days that they go fishing.  It's what the team loves to do, and they have built so many great memories fishing.  

What about you?  How do you regularly sharpen your saw?  What do you love to do?  Rejuvenate yourself and win for the long term.  Don't just sprint for a season and end up losing the marathon!

 

 
Executive Summary from Patrick Thean's book Rhythm

Patrick Thean

 

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