“Believe in yourself, if cauliflower can become Pizza, you can become anything you choose!”
“Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening my ax.”
In Stephen Covey’s “7 Habits of Highly Effective People” one of those habits is “Sharpening the Saw” The quote from Abraham Lincoln above gives us a lot of wisdom. Sometimes we need to step back and spend time in improving who we are instead of always plowing forward in haste. This is especially true if we are having difficulty in accomplishing something. Maybe we need different or better skills. Sometimes the skill we need to hone is “delegating”. Yes, that is a skill.
So, here is an exercise to help you improve:
- Think of one thing you have been struggling to accomplish.
- Analyze “why” you are trying to accomplish this one thing. If you cannot clarify the “why” and find that it might not be something you want or need to do, eliminate it from your task. If it is something you want or need to do, proceed to next step.
- Is this something that is in your wheelhouse?
- If it is in your wheelhouse, what skills could be improved to accomplish the task with better results?
- If it is in your wheelhouse, what reading, courses or mentors could you tap into?
- If it is not in your wheelhouse, who could help you accomplish it?
- Make sure you make it clear what that person needs to accomplish and follow up for guidance and accountability.
More to come on sharpening your saw on the next one.
Happy honing!
