Stephen Covey, in his book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, starts the final chapter with a short story:

Suppose you were to come upon someone in the woods working feverishly to saw down a tree.

 “What are you doing?” you ask.

“You look exhausted!” you exclaim.  “How long have you been at it?”

“Over five hours,” he returns, “and I’m beat.  This is hard work.”

“Well, why don’t you take a break for a few minutes and sharpen that saw?” you inquire.  “I’m sure it would go a lot faster.” 

“I don’t have time to sharpen the saw,” the man says emphatically.  “I’m too busy sawing!”

How many of us are too busy in our day-to-day business to take the time to “sharpen the saw”?  What does that mean?  It means taking a fresh look at what we do, how we do it, and how we could do it better – whether that is more efficiently, more cost-effectively, with higher quality, or with more creativity.  We get stuck in our comfort zones because they are simply that – “comfortable.”

When was the last time you looked at your business with fresh eyes?  Maybe you’re too close to the work to see it.  Maybe you “hire” a fresh set of eyes to look at your business.

That’s what I did three months ago.  I hired a business coach.  In a short period of time, we’ve addressed some major issues that we had been putting off for years.  We have a new strategic plan, revised mission statement, new business development process, reorganized client servicing structure, increased communication at all levels of the company, and we’re moving toward a long-term succession plan.  I can’t wait to see what the next three months will bring.

Sharpening the saw is about getting out of our ruts and making every day a new day in business.  It’s not at all comfortable, but it creates some dramatic changes.

There’s another maxim about a retiring teacher who was asked how long he had been at the profession.  He replied that he had taught 20 years.  He is then questioned as to whether he taught 20 years, or he taught one year 20 times.  I actually had that latter experience at a well known university where the professor was using the exact same class notes for at least ten years.  We had only four students in our class, so he photocopied his 3”x5” cards (ask your parents what they were for) and distributed them to us at each class.  Many times the dates on the cards coincided with the exact same date of the lecture, only with a 10-year difference.  This was a man who was teaching the same year throughout his career.  It was a technology course, and a good thing that technology wasn’t changing much back then.  It related to the printing industry and much of it is not recognizable today.

So how are you making every new client project a “fresh” project?  When was the last time you took a continuing education course, read a marketing or design book, looked at consumer trends, asked about social networking goals, looked for “a horse to ride” (Al Ries and Jack Trout), sat through a Webinar, or just went networking at your local professional association meeting? There are countless ways to “sharpen the saw.”

Sometimes we just become “stuck.”  When that occurs, don’t be afraid to ask for help, get a jump-start, or sometimes a good ‘ol fashioned kick in the rear end.  A new perspective can make business a lot more fun, not to mention more profitable.

Continue the blog and share how you have kept your skills fresh, your work sharp and your talents creative.  Or share a time when you got “stuck” and found a way to turn it around. 

–Ralph Yearick