What’s Your Whetstone?

What’s Your Whetstone?

Post From Rich Habits  By Thomas C. Corley

 “Give me six hours to cut down a tree, and I will spend the first four hours sharpening my axe.” – Abraham Lincoln

What sharpens your axe?

It’s an important question because it gets to the core of what is required in order to become rich and successful.

I have spent over a decade studying self-made millionaires. The one common denominator they all seemed to have were daily habits or daily routines that enabled them to sharpen their axe by consistent daily self-improvement.

Most of that improvement was related to their business, careers or vocation. But many of those self-improvement habits also included keeping fit and healthy and little secrets they deployed to build relationships with other rich, successful people.

Because I had a front row seat that allowed me to peer into the minutia of the daily lives of the rich and poor, I learned that those who were constantly sharpening their ax happened to also be the richest and most successful individuals.

So, in an effort to become rich, I took a page out of the book of these self-made millionaires and decided to create my own whetstone to sharpen my own axe.

For me, my whetstone is a proven process that has become my morning routine, or set of habits:

I wake at 5am each day (Habit) – 25% of the time I wake up at 4am. 25% of the time I wake up at 5:30 am.

I get my coffee (Habit) and go down to my “Hole” (basement office).

I review my Word List for 15 minutes (Habit) – My Word List is a list of words I am committing to memory.

I review my Facts Summary or Study Summary for 15 minutes (Habit). My Facts Summary are important facts I feel it is important to know. My Study Summary is a summary of the thousands of studies I’ve poured through over the years that make their way into media articles and my books.

I read for 45 minutes – Reading material = studies, specifically selected articles, latest non-fiction book, etc.

I write for 45 minutes.

I spend about 30 minutes reviewing my work – articles, TV interviews, Internet media interviews, speaking engagements, radio interviews, podcast interviews, etc.

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