Sharpening the Saw

In Stephen Covey's Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, the seventh habit is "sharpening the saw", a metaphor for constant improvement and refinement of your greatest asset: yourself.

The UBBT process gives its participants the opportunity to construct a path towards balanced self-renewal and to ensure that small steps are being taken on a daily basis, not only to achieve goals, but to refine your consciousness towards the point where your lifestyle includes sharpening your saw.

I haven't even formally begun my UBBT, but inside my head, I'm living it.  I followed some good advice from a lot of wise people like Master Callos, my first teacher, Master Ed Fong, plus many others (you know who you all are - thank you!) and began training immediately in every aspect of the test that I could wrap my head around and kickstart myself into doing...plus some.

Some proud moments:

• I'm on track to completing 52,000 pushups and crunches by Christmas, although I'm going to pick up the pace a little and try to hit the mark in front of my students next week.
• I have performed over 1,000 repetitions each of two different forms.
• I have engaged in 500 rounds of sparring and bag work.
• I have traversed over 1,000 miles in a combination of biking, hiking, walking, and trail running.
  
• I've lost 25 pounds and my body is gradually becoming more defined.
• I have personally completed over 10,000 acts of kindness, most of them little things (which really add up), with some powerful ones to punctuate my list.  I'm going to shift my focus to the Charter for Compassion website and inspiring my student team to begin recording there, although I'm going to continue doing my own.
• I have meditated for over 100 hours, mainly with twice daily 20-minute meditations: one when I wake up, the other during my break at work, with some additional moments as needed.  I haven't counted the mini-meditations that I do at the beginning and end of my classes.
• So far, I believe that I have successfully mended two relationships in my life which have gone bad, and these mean a lot of me because I had feared that they would be the most difficult to repair.
• I have coordinated two community events so far: an environmental cleanup and another event to support a local charity.  I have plenty more in the works, and have been training my students team to initiate some of their own.
• I have averaged at least one journal entry per week, with only minor variations in my posting frequency.
• I feel like I've made some digital connections with other UBBT members already, and am looking forward to meeting them in person!
• With some technical assistance from my brother (much love and thanks!), I've aided in the creation of 5 films (2 DVDs and 3 videos) that we're really proud to share, and my students love!

These accomplishments, plus much more, are the result of adopting daily habits and sticking to them.  If you're just beginning your UBBT journey, as I am technically about to, begin boldly and stay strong!

As far as I've come, I still have a long way to go.  I'm still dissatisfied with my physique and I need to step up my game if I'm going to get results in this area.  I need to overcome my own camera shyness and produce some simple videos on my own so that my brother can concentrate on high-quality large projects instead of my basic editing needs.  I want to fire up my student team and get them 100% behind this process so that we begin strong and end stronger.  There are still many requirements left for me to complete, including some of my personal goals, and even though I've hit most of my initial marks, I'm not going to stop.

I've only just begun to sharpen my saw.