The daily private victory—time routinely spent each day renewing body, mind, heart, and spirit—is the key to developing all of the 7 Habits. Winning a daily private victory gives us the capacity to win the more difficult challenges played out in the public arenas of our lives.

Brain, Body, Heart, and Spirit are representations of different aspects of your life that require daily renewal.

• The brain is for intellectual growth and continual learning.
• The body is for maintaining physical health such as diet and exercise.
• The heart is for cultivating positive relationships with others.
• The spirit is for value clarification and commitment, and study and meditation.

Are you winning the daily private victory—spending time each day to renew yourself in the aspects above? Have you developed your own routine, pattern, or regimen for balanced renewal?

Try this:

• Observe what other people do to renew themselves on a daily basis to see what you might learn and apply.
• Develop your own routine, pattern, or regimen for renewing yourself daily.
• Block out time for your daily private victory when you do your weekly planning.
• Identify which dimension you may be falling short on—body, mind, heart, or spirit— and make it a focus this week.

Stephen R. Covey said, “There’s no other way you could spend an hour that would begin to compare with the daily private victory in terms of value and results. It will affect every decision, every relationship. It will greatly improve the quality, the effectiveness, of every other hour of the day, including the depth and restfulness of your sleep.”