Sharpening the Saw

Popularized by Steven Covey, "Sharpening the Saw" is about a habit of self-renewal. This is an analogy of a woodcutter who is sawing for several days straight and is becoming less and less productive. The process of cutting dulls the blade. So the solution is to periodically sharpen the saw. By sharpening, not only he maintains the quality of the blade, but also gives himself time to rest and regain strength. 


How can I relate into that? Hmmm.. Let's see.


Covey's Analogy
Activity: Sawing woods
Tool: Saw
Solution: Sharpen


My analogy
Activity: Resting (yes, that is my daily activity)
Tool: Brain (or should I say mind?)
Solution: Sharpen

How? How do I prevent my little brain from dulling, without actually frying it? 


I just realized, I am actually sharpening my mind all along. Great! I don't have to go back to employment acting like Patrick the Star. Several activities kept me busy, kept me sane and kept my brain intact. 


First, I improved my Adobe Photoshop skills. And when I say improved, I really mean it. I can only enhance photographs before, now I can trace and draw. Yay! I also made some profit out of it. I design shirts and sell them online. Not bad for a hobby to kill time. 

Drawn from scratch, used 3 layers. It's a DOTA item if you're wondering.

I also wrote technical reports online. Yes, I've made homeworks and projects for lazy foreign people and earned from it as well. This fried my brain a bit but it's all worth it.

Blameless Amplifier - hardest one so far.

I'm about to finish Anne Rice's fourth installment of the Vampire Chronicles, Tale of the Body Thief. Again, genius work from her. But this book took me some months finishing it. The first half was quite a bore. I dragged myself for months to actually reach the exciting part. But hey, once I reached it, I was unstoppable! Her characters are never ideal but I love how she makes them all seem perfect.

All worn out from months of abuse.

I'm also about to finish Portal 2. It's easier than Portal 1, though it's obviously longer. It's equally fun and mind-boggling too. I played this game because of a dare. My brother promised to treat me to Italiannis if I were able to finish both 1 and 2, turns out I enjoyed the game more than he did! Yay!

My brain lost a thousand calories from working out through this game.

So yes, my brain is still working. Glad to know that. How can I test if my bitchiness is still working?