Chapter 30
Self-Renewal
Construction Stage 4.3 Maintenance
SAL Model Stage 4.3 Self-Renewal
Property owners of all kinds must invest time, effort, and money in maintaining their facilities, machinery, technology, and other supplies and apparatuses. Otherwise, such resources will break down or become obsolete or spoiled.
Likewise, YOU must continually maintain your Existential Growth by investing time and resources on the altar of life balance, which includes regular time and effort spent in Self-Renewal activities.
Self-Renewal includes: rest, recovery, relaxation, restoration, and rejuvenation activities and efforts aimed at continually maintaining holistic health and life balance.
SELF-RENEWAL
Rest, recovery, relaxation, restoration, and rejuvenation activities and efforts
aimed at continually maintaining holistic health and life balance.
Human beings are not automatons or robots; nor were we designed and intended to function as such. As humans, we all require a healthy balance between work, play, study, rest, and relaxation.
As a competitive runner, I discovered that pushing my physical body relentlessly for several days in a row could actually hinder rather than help my race day performance. It also increased my risk of injury. I therefore learned to alternate between "Hard" and "Easy" training days in order to build my strength and endurance safely, effectively, and gradually.
In addition to alternating between "Hard" and "Easy" days, I would further abstain from all training on Sundays. While I primarily practiced this Sunday training abstinence for religious and spiritual purposes, I found that I also gained emotional, mental, and physical benefits from doing so. Indeed, I believe that this practice of complete physical rest on Sundays ultimately bolstered rather than diminished my racing performances by helping me avoid burnout.
This alternating "Hard day, Easy day, one complete rest day per week" training strategy has a metaphorical equivalent in the way we run our lives as self-action leaders.
No matter who you are or how naturally gifted or strong you may be, no human being can go-go-go indefinitely without experiencing burnout, illness, or worse. Nor can you continuously perform at 100% effort; if you try, you'll eventually lose your edge and spark.
Self-action leaders should always aim at a balanced approach to everything they undertake in their lives, careers, and relationships, and Self-Renewal practices are a vital tool in helping you to achieve this desired equilibrium.
There will, of course, be periods of time when your actions or schedule may be strategically out-of-balance for a season in order to confront a singular exigency, meet a tight deadline, or complete a unique task, project, or mission. Moreover, the unique formula of "Hard, Easy, and Rest" will vary—sometimes significantly—from individual-to-individual. Nevertheless, these exceptions should be individual-focused and represent temporary hiatuses from the norm, not the norm itself.
Proper maintenance of YOURSELF as a complex human being and self-action leader requires continual cultivation and ongoing effort. It involves balancing your PRODUCTIVITY (work output) with your Production Capability (ability to work). (1) It does no good to continually run like a machine for short-periods of time only to burn out and fail to achieve your long-term objectives.
REMEMBER the words of Aesop: Slow and Steady Wins the Race!
"Slow and Steady Wins the Race."
—Aesop
As human beings, we sometimes get so caught up in the pursuit of "Sawing" (doing, striving, working) that we forget—or fail—to take time out to Sharpen our Saw. (2)
This negligence is often well-intentioned. After all, it
takes time to sharpen your saw—time that could be spent sawing, right? However, the fact and reality in most cases is that taking time out at regular intervals to sharpen your saw actually saves you time in the long-run because you work so much more effectively and efficiently when your saw is sharp. Sharpening your saw also prevents it from binding up completely and getting stuck in whatever you are cutting. Thus, an ounce of prevention really can be worth a pound of cure.
"An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."
—Benjamin Franklin
I learned this sharpening lesson literally while helping my father cut firewood in the Blue Mountains near my boyhood home in Southeastern Utah.
Every few hours, my dad would routinely stop his chainsaw to sharpen each one of its steel "teeth" with an electric grinding stone. There were several dozen cutting teeth on the bow-shaped chainsaw that my father used, so the process took several minutes to complete.
Nevertheless, once all of those teeth had been sharpened, Dad could cut through the logs much easier and faster than before—an increase in slicing celerity that was obvious to onlookers, including me!
All these years and decades later, I can still see—in my mind's eye—Dad's verbally expressed pleasure and relief at how much easier his cutting work was immediately following a sharpening. Moreover, he himself had more energy and vigor than before because of the hydration and rest he received while pausing his work to sharpen the saw.
As Stephen R. Covey rightly pointed out, Self-Renewal should be more than just an occasional practice in our lives and careers. It should become a regularly attended-to HABIT.He felt so strongly about this fact and reality that he decided to dedicate the last of his famous 7 Habits of Highly Effective People—SHARPEN the SAW—to the art and science of Self-Renewal. He further utilized the aforementioned "Saw Sharpening" image and story to serve as its metaphor. To further underscore the importance—nay, the absolute essential nature of—Self-Renewal, Covey chose to visually surround the other six habits with his seventh and final habit on the Seven Habits model diagram. This is because, according to Covey, Self-Renewal "surrounds the other habits ... because it is the habit that makes all the others possible." (3)
During my 2-year, full-time missionary service to Alberta, Canada, I once displayed a quote on my apartment wall that read: "I must do the most productive thing possible at every given moment." I'll never forget the day my missionary companion at the time declared in disgust: "Elder Jensen, that quote is the stupidest thing I've ever heard!"
However soaked in cynicism his comment may have been, I knew immediately in my mind and heart that he had a point, and the point is this: if you are continuously focused on being highly productive, you will eventually burn out and be useless. Thus, "the most productive thing possible at any given moment" may not involve work at all. In many cases, in fact, it may involve rest, relaxation, or any other number of activities that are necessary to refresh and renew in preparation to maximize your performance later on when it matters most.
REMEMBER: Your goal as a self-action leader is not to see how fast and far you can go until you collapse on the floor from dehydration and exhaustion.
Your goal as a self-action leader is to concurrently expend and renew your energy in as healthy and balanced a manner as possible in an effort to maximize your long-term productivity, happiness, success, Existential Growth, and inner peace.
In Your Journal
In what ways do you currently practice Self-Renewal in your life, and/or career, and/or relationships.
In what ways can you improve in your personal and/or professional practice of Self-Renewal?
Think of a Self-Renewal method or strategy you have never employed before that you would be willing to try now. Engage that strategy and then write about your experience and rate its utility as a Self-Renewal option moving forward in the future.
Who do you know that is good at life balance and Self-Renewal? Schedule a time to talk to this person and ask him or her questions about their Self-Renewal habits and strategies. Journal about what you learn from the conversation.
—Dr. JJ
Wednesday, July 30, 2025
Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, USA
Author's Note: This is the 472nd Blog Post Published by Freedom Focused LLC since November 2013 and the 263rd consecutive weekly blog published since August 31, 2020.
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Chapter 30 Notes
1. Covey, S. R. (1989). The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons
in Personal Change. New York, NY: Fireside. Pages 52-62.
2. Ibid. Page 285.
3. Ibid. Page 287.
