Sharpen the Saw: Wealth Principle 52 with Vinney Chopra

October 23, 2026•6 min read

Sharpening the saw means setting aside time to renew the four things your work runs on: your body, your mind, your relationships, and your sense of purpose. That is the heart of Wealth Principle 52, and on this week's Abundance Thursday, Vinney (Smile) Chopra and I went through what it looks like in a real week. The short version is that slowing down on purpose is how operators speed up.

The phrase comes from Stephen Covey's book on the seven habits of highly effective people, and it is the last of those habits for a reason. Everything before it depends on it.

Slow Down to Speed Up

Vinney told me the book changed his results during a hard stretch. His point was that habits are the unit of change. "We can never perfect anything," he said, but if you take a portion of a good habit and make it automatic, it keeps working when your motivation does not.

Then he described the habit that stuck with him most. Every Friday morning he held a meeting with himself. If someone asked whether he was busy at seven or eight, he said yes, he had an appointment. "It's an appointment with me."

In that meeting he asked what happened that week, which systems were broken, where the leakage was, and where his time was actually going. He called time "the most precious thing," and he pointed out that spending it on ordinary, mundane tasks while expecting different results is the old definition of insanity. His phrase for the payoff was preparation time, so he could be a better leader on Monday morning.

I added something I have noticed. The moment you tell people you are protecting time to think, they say it will only take a minute, or that you can do it afterward. Protected time only works if you defend it. If you want a framework for deciding what earns a place on your calendar, the three question test from an earlier Abundance Thursday is a good place to start.

A weekly review is also the right moment to look at your numbers. If you want one place to keep them, track this in the Net Worth Tracker and bring what you see to your own Friday meeting. The tool organizes what you enter. It does not forecast anything.

The Four Areas You Maintain

Vinney sent me notes on the four dimensions of sharpening the saw. I read them out on the call and I will repeat them here, because the specifics are what make them usable.

Physical. Take a 15 minute walk after lunch or dinner. Drink a full glass of water before your morning coffee. Pick one bedtime and keep it. As the notes put it, "good sleep is the cheapest success secret in the world." I told Vinney that nobody talks about this in the world of money, and he answered that he wants his body, mind, and soul in good shape so he can bring value to the people around him. A tired operator makes tired decisions.

Mental. Keep learning. Vinney called himself a student for life and said that when you teach something, you learn it twice. He was also clear that the new software tools are not hard, and that the productivity increase is easy to see once you try them. I use them to take what I already know and put it in a second format, such as a written version of a video, so people who read can get the same value as people who watch.

Social and emotional. Call one friend this week with no agenda. Say thank you out loud to three people every day. Spend time with people who lift you up. Vinney put it as drainers versus radiators, and said you want to be at the higher level among the people you spend time with, so you can lift others too.

I had a small example of this the day before. After a frustrating day of work, I stopped everything when my family called me to eat, and I spent a couple of hours away from the screen. When I came back to the project, I asked a better question: is there an easier way to do this? There was. The break was part of the work.

Spiritual. Start the morning with five quiet minutes of prayer, meditation, or gratitude before you touch your phone. Write down three blessings each week, even on hard days, because there are always three. Read or listen to something that feeds your soul. Vinney shared that he listens to texts from his own tradition each morning to get centered. If gratitude is the part you want to build, the depth of your gratitude is worth a read.

Use Your Tools, Then Check With People Who Know

Near the end of the call I asked Vinney where operators should sharpen their skills heading into 2027. He said the key is to look at your own skills, and to make sure your savings are not quietly losing purchasing power.

On deals, his advice was practical. Feed what you are considering to an AI assistant, ask it to explain the deal in simpler terms, and then take it to your CPA and your attorney before you commit anything. I agreed and added that you should have a mentor who has done that type of deal before you buy. Use the tools to prepare better questions. Do not use them to skip the people who are accountable for the answers.

None of this is financial, legal, or tax advice. Vinney and I were two operators describing what we have learned from our own experience, and your situation is not ours.

The Takeaway

Wealth Principle 52 comes down to one recurring habit and four small commitments. Put a meeting with yourself on the calendar every week and treat it as real. In it, check the four areas: body, mind, relationships, and purpose. Pick one concrete action in each area for the coming week, and write it down.

If you do only one of them, make it the meeting. The rest tends to follow from having a quiet place to ask what is broken and what right would look like.

Closing

This is the last principle in the series, and it is the one that keeps the other fifty one working. Before you close this page, put a 30 minute appointment with yourself on the calendar for this week. Then, if you are not sure which kind of operator you are, the real estate operator archetype quiz is a fast way to find out.