“Sharpen the Saw means preserving and enhancing the greatest asset you have--you.” (Stephen Covey, 2015) According to Covey, sharpening our saw is the renewing of ourselves in the physical, social/emotional, mental and spiritual. Balance is definitely the most difficult part of the sharpening the saw process. I’ve learned from many successful people on how they balance their responsibilities, one of the best pieces of advice I received was to have a regimen that is un-regimented. In other words, have a plan but remain flexible as life will not allow you to remain on a consistent schedule. Things always come up and you just have to be open to that.
Physical The teaching profession is a draining profession because we are constantly pouring into others, physically and emotionally. One of the commitments I’ve had for the past few years is to remain healthy. My students deserve a teacher that not only preaches but practices what he preaches as well. I want to have great energy every day that I step in front of my students so I decided to make more time for the gym and to educate myself in the area of nutrition. Making time for the gym after work was very difficult due to teaching and family commitments so I decided to make my day longer and wake up earlier. I now go to the gym at 4 in the morning about twice per week and normal hours on the weekends. In the area of nutrition, I decided to educate myself by reading books, blogs and watched hours of youtube videos on health advice to ensure I’m eating the right food and the right amount for my body type. With this new regimen, I struggled with rest. I have given myself some days off where I don’t go to the gym and don’t do any school work just so I’m not depleted during the week. Social/Emotional For the past few years, I’ve entered a season where I was more cautious of the people I surround myself with. It wasn’t about judging others or that people that were around me were bad but I decided to make changes to improve myself. I wanted to eliminate bad habits that stunted my growth and affected my purpose. I began aligning myself with people that were positive and not afraid to pursue destiny. People that were not only risk takers but also had a heart to live in services to others. I also began associating myself with people in education that I can learn from and also with people that seeked my help as well. “People learn from one another, just as iron sharpens iron.” Proverbs 27:17 Mental During my journey to become an educator, I also began my journey of reading books. Books have changed my life. During a 2-3 year span I immersed myself into self development books to learn how to control my thoughts, finding purpose and following my purpose. That same journey continues to this day, at a much slower pace because I’m a bit busier but has continued nonetheless. I love learning from others and listening to other people’s stories. There’s so much to learn from others because I truly believe we will never experience a new problem. People that have come before us have experienced what we’re about to experience and wrote the answer in a book. This doesn’t mean we will be able to solve every problem from reading books but we can be better prepared on how to handle and react to situations. Spiritual My wife and I love going to the beach every Saturday morning. We love getting there early in the morning before the rush of the people. We take pictures, listen to the waves and just walk around with coffee in our hands. Life can be very hectic but there’s something about the beach that slows everything down for a few moments. We also pray daily, in the morning before we head to work and at night before we go to sleep. It allows us to start our day with our creator, thanking Him for giving us another day to fulfill his purpose and at night we thank him for the experiences we were given throughout the day. My faith means everything to me and I do my best to stay aligned with it by praying, reading the bible, worship music, helping others and through fellowship. Commitment I commit to sharpening my physical, social/emotional, mental and spiritual saw on a daily basis because I know that being consistent will create growth and change in my life and the lives of others. References Steven covey, S.C. (2015). The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People Habit 7: Sharpening the Saw. Retrieved October 7, 2015, from https://www.stephencovey.com/7habits/7habits-habit6.php Synergize
“To put it simply, synergy means "two heads are better than one." (Stephen Covey, 2015) Synergize is the habit of creative cooperation. The ability to work within a team, having an open mind and finding new solutions to old problems. In my professional experience, I’ve worked as a social worker and now as a teenager. There wasn’t a lot of teamwork as a social worker. I managed my own caseload and was in charge of my own clients. As a teacher, I’ve never felt as if I was on my own. With the implementation of the Professional Learning Community (PLC) there has been much more teamwork, we all bring in all our experiences and knowledge to the table and we have been able to produce much more than we could on our own. I’ve been working with the same team for the past 3 years and I felt we were synergized and producing some awesome results for our students. This year, our team changed but the synergy remained. It took some time to get going, we’re still working out some kinks but I definitely feel the synergy and the open mindedness to work together and listen to each other's opinions. Commitment I Commit to surrounding myself with a diverse group of people and experiences. To have an open mind and value the differences of others. Instead of surrounding myself with a bunch of people and/or experiences that agree with me, I commit to stepping out of my comfort zone, meeting new people, experiencing new experiences, and to continuously improve. Teaching the Habit I plan on teaching the habit to my students through constantly switching their seating arrangements on a monthly basis, to continue working in groups and constant partner talk. I believe it’s important to constantly sit next to different classmates so they can learn to adapt and begin to develop the ability to work with people that may not look, speak, act and learn the way they do but they find a way to work as a team and succeed. References Steven covey, S.C. (2015). The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People Habit 6: Think Win-Win. Retrieved 30 September, 2015, from https://www.stephencovey.com/7habits/7habits-habit6.php Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood
I’ve always heard of the importance of communication in life. As men, we’re so used to doing, reacting and advising as we always have an answer for something because naturally, we love to fix things. “You spend years learning how to read and write, and years learning how to speak. But what about listening?” (Steven Covey, 2015) I’ve never been to a professional development on the art of listening but I think I need to. This is one habit I truly struggle with and going on my second year of marriage, lacking the ability to listen has definitely not been an asset in that department. Professionally, I have a hard time sitting in a staff meeting or professional development without tuning out for large periods of time. Not intentionally, just something I struggle with. Personally and professionally, I tend to want to get my point across and/or share my experiences so I forget to listen, my mind is usually working while the other person is talking. I’ve often asked, “why do I do this?” According to Covey, “because most people listen with the intent to reply, not to understand. You listen to yourself as you prepare in your mind what you are going to say, the questions you are going to ask, etc.” (Steven Covey, 2015) I tend to filter everything through my life experiences and if I have any knowledge of it, then my mind tends to begin formulating a response in the middle of a conversation when I’m supposed to be listening. Covey distinguishes between 5 types of listening: ignoring, pretending, selective, attentive and empathetic. I believe I’ve practiced all 5, however I need to practice more empathy. Looking back at conversations where I tuned people out or pretended to listen, doesn’t still well with me so I need to make it a focus to empathize with people, colleagues and loved ones much more. Empathetic listening is intending to understand what the other person is trying to communicate without interrupting them with a response or formulating responses as they speak. Commitment I commit to mimicking the content that was just spoke because repeating what they said will develop a level of comprehension that is necessary in a conversation and it will show the speaker that I am engaged. I commit to rephrasing the content, to tell the same story, but in my own words. I commit to reflect on feelings of the person speaking instead of instead of trying to ‘fix’ the problem. Teaching the Habit I plan on teaching the habit to myself, first and foremost, and to my students. To practice listening to each other as they speak and then have them repeat (in their own words) what their partner just told them. I plan on incorporating more partner talk as it not only teaches the students how to communicate but how to listen as well. References Steven covey, S.C. (2015). The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People Habit 5: Think Win-Win. Retrieved 30 September, 2015, from https://www.stephencovey.com/7habits/7habits-habit5.php |
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