In this episode, Tony Suriano walks through a forest with his wife and a companion, using the natural setting as a backdrop to explore Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. He emphasizes the importance of recharging in nature and how that renewal fuels purposeful work. The conversation weaves personal anecdotes—living on a Philippine beach, catching a pufferfish, and daily shower rituals—with reflections on Covey’s habits, especially “Begin with the End in Mind,” “Put First Things First,” “Think Win‑Win,” “Synergize,” and “Sharpen the Saw.” Tony challenges listeners to define their own end‑state, experiment with short‑term stays in desired locations, prioritize tasks with clarity, seek collaborative third‑option solutions, and practice daily renewal (e.g., brief showers, patience, present‑moment awareness). He closes by urging the audience to apply proactive, synergistic, and sharpening habits in everyday life, framing the walk as both a literal and metaphorical journey toward a more intentional, balanced existence.
Chapters
So if I have a great idea and someone else has a great idea, let's put it together and find a third alternative that supersedes. That is so powerful. Yeah, you can do a lot as one person, but you can do so much and feel so much and experience so much together with synergy. That's what it's about. My wife says this intro sounds like a conspiracy mystery.
So I'll stop that voice and tell you, this show is for you to get you on the track you want for your life. I'm gonna share encouraging educational content, hopefully entertaining, that will help you direct your life. This is another episode. This is another day. I'm here with my lovely wife. We're walking in nature and I wanted to share at least one of the 7 habits from Stephen Covey's 7 Habits of Highly Successful People, or highly effective people. And the reason I want to share that is because right now we're in nature and we're recharging. And today the emphasis that I'm thinking about is how often do I get to Recharge in nature like this. If you're watching on YouTube, you can see how many trees are surrounding me. And if you're listening, there are a lot of trees. And there is almost no signal around here, which is great. It's a reset. It's a recharge. And this reminds me of what I need more in my life. Although I go on walks, although I Go to the parks in my regular area of life, it's not really enough. And I seek to be able to do this more often. Have you ever thought about where you really want to live? Yeah, of course. But it does take certain endeavors with enthusiasm to actually get to a place Such as this, to be living in a place like this year-round, or at least having the time to live in this place. What do I really mean? I mean that you have to begin with the end in mind, and that's habit number 2 from Stephen Covey's book. And right now, being in this nature and having this recharge time is Reminding me that when I go back to my work zone, I go back to that next project, I want to do that project to the best of my ability, not to just create more wealth and not just for the fulfillment of finishing a project or a goal, but to be able to experience this nature and the roots of humanity more often. Because that to me is my end in mind. What's your end in mind? Is it a house on the beach like everyone, or is it something else? Is it balloon rides every 2 months? I really would love to get on some balloon rides. And why I even think about this, why I mention it, is because when I go back to the drawing board When I go back to the computer, when I go back to a film set, it will give me new energy to put forth into the project. And it actually will make it a lot more fun because every project, even if it's your passion, there are ups and downs. You get spun around and you get tired. And you sometimes are close to finishing it or succeeding. You want to give up? How do you not give up? How do you continue the fight for what you believe in? You start with the end in mind. So again, something like this, being in nature with a loved one, being in nature with all these beautiful animals. There's horses over here. There's— they're coming up around the corner. We have a donkey somewhere.
Donkey.
I hear roosters. Haven't seen them yet. This is what it's about for me, just to be able to do this a little more often so I can remain not only enthusiastic when I'm going to work, because we all have to work. Almost everyone has to do some kind of work to have some luxuries or to live in nature a little more often. Because look, we're in the city a lot. Even in our city where we live, the park is across the street. We have beautiful trees in the backyard, but there's cars everywhere. There's, there's internet connections everywhere. There's phones. And if you do that too long, it's so easy to forget that you aren't getting charged up like you are maybe in nature. And that's the case for me. So this is my declaration to myself And at the same time, think about yourself. Make a declaration to yourself. What's your end in mind? What do you need to be thinking about while you're going to work? If it's a job you love, even better. If it's a job that's in between finding that new passion, you still need to think with the end of the mind— end in mind, because that will give you your juice. Right? What do you think?
Right.
Have anything, any words?
Well, it's beautiful here and I'm grateful.
Yeah?
Yes.
I actually recommend that you put a little money away to go live temporarily, even if it's just 2 weeks, to a place you think you want to live so you can actually realize, oh, Yeah, this is my end in mind. Or you might not want that, but you have to try it out. And you don't have to wait till you have millions of dollars to live in a place you want, for example, on the beach.
Or you'd never get there.
Yeah, you'll never get there if you don't experience it and see if it's really what you want. For example, I lived on the beach in the Philippines where my house was, let's say, here, and then that fence about 20 feet away was the water. I lived there for 6 months, and I realized, yeah, I did like it, but if I didn't go there, it could have just been a dream, and maybe I wouldn't be working hard and pushing for things that matter as much as I do. But yeah, I tell you, I would love to experience that more often. Because when I went out on those waters, I saw blue starfish. I even put them on my knees, and then I put them back, don't worry. But there was so many beautiful things to see over there.
Pufferfish?
And, and I, I even grabbed a pufferfish once by accident in this net. I was just looking at fish and putting them back, and it started to puff up. I put it back, but I digress. The reason I'm sharing all this is because we do not experience the recharge as much as we should, because it's hard. Life happens and you get busy, and in this busy world you get lost in work, and then you wonder what happened to 10 years. Why was I working all this time? And some people They work their whole lives, they retire, they don't know what to do with their lives, and then they pass away shortly after retirement. We've all heard that story. Why? Because they didn't really have an end in mind except, okay, I'm just gonna stay in this, this job for 30 years, and when I'm retired, then I'll relax. When I'm retired, then I'll have fun. That is not how it works. We got a car here coming up. We're moving out of the way. By the way, thank you for hanging out with us on this walk. I'm gonna look at some of these other habits and see if any resonate. So the first one is be proactive from his book, and it reminds us that we are the programmer of our own life and we can be proactive towards that. We can control what we can, and we have to accept what we can't. And the second habit we just talked about. The third one is put first things first. And that to me is essential, and it's all about priority and reprioritization. And I think if you start with the end in mind, it will help you figure out what you need to do next. If you just try to prioritize without having clarity, you're going to get sucked into tasks, right? Yeah?
Right.
I think that we get sucked into tasks and checklists too often, and before we know it, we aren't doing the thing. And the most important thing is to do the thing. In writing, that's our phrase. I'm a writer, and the most important thing is to do the thing. It's hard when you don't have clarity. That's why I love thinking about that end in mind and getting crystal clear. Hope you're following along with this.
Hope I'm not just— I'm following along.
Going too much with the flow in this beautiful land out here.
Speaking of clarity—
She wants to speak. Here, grab the mic.
Speaking of clarity, if you want a tip, in the morning when you wake up, take a shower because water apparently helps with clarity. So don't just live your day without Showering, water on your head, a quick one, 10 seconds, that would give you clarity.
10-second shower. The moral of this podcast episode is to take a shower. Okay? Don't get stank. Cold shower is even better. Right now we have a lot of heat and humidity, so we're taking 3 showers a day. Look at this. There's a peach right here. I think I stepped on a peach. This is again the recharge I need because I can be in the present even though I'm speaking with you right here. I feel I'm so in nature that everything is vivid. And when you see nature do its thing, what it's supposed to do, You can actually trust your instinct more because you are part of nature.
I am part of nature.
And we forget that there is a way. It is a higher source.
We need love.
We need to go and follow that source and be natural, not be overwhelmed, realize Yeah, time is short, but we do have some time here. And if we think about the end in mind, and if we think priorities, it gets better and you will be recharged. I might as well list the rest of these habits in case you're interested, but I recommend you read this book. It is phenomenal. I should reread it very soon. It's been a while. But the next habit is think Win-win. And that just means make sure those around you are winning and you're winning.
Benefits, mutual benefits.
It's simple. I don't even need to go deep into that. And the next one is seek first to understand, then to be understood. That's probably the hardest one for us humans because we are self-centered, whether you admit it or not.
I know I am a lot. I believe it's okay as long as you're just trying to be a little bit better than your previous self.
But then remember, when you're with people, you gotta listen. You gotta think about their self-centeredness because we're both self-centered. So if just for momentarily you can step into their world, be curious, and find out what they love, Everything will amount to a better conversation and experience.
Especially, it's so hard when you're being tested by family members. I think you can understand me.
Oh yeah, when you're with family, it's the hardest because you have the law of familiarity happening, happening.
And then what happens after that? You go back into old methods, old ways that weren't working.
And if you want new results, you've got to have new habits.
You can't use the old habits if you want new results. So now, this podcast episode is just one long walk in the woods. I hope you're following along. I hope you're interested. Let me know in the comments what resonated, if anything did. I hope it did. I think it did. Share this episode with someone that wants to hear it. I'm going to continue Learning and sharing. And that is the mark of a maven and the spirituality of a sage. But to end this episode, I just wanted to share the last 2 habits. So number 6 is synergize. What does that mean to me? It means finding a 3rd possibility that outweighs the 1st and 2nd. So if I have a great idea and someone else has a great idea, let's put it together and find a third alternative that supersedes. That is so powerful. And when we realize that, yeah, you can do a lot as one person, but you can do so much and feel so much and experience so much together with synergy. That's what it's about. And hopping into number 7, this is one of my favorites because I know I'm the type of guy that needs this every single day. And I'm proud to say I, I really work on this. And that is sharpen your saw. Sharpen your saw. So don't try cutting down a tree with a dull blade for 6 hours. Sharpen your saw for 30, 40 minutes and your chopping time will be smooth and fast. And for me, every single day I try to sharpen the saw. I refresh what I want to work on, what I need to put more into my life. I need to sharpen my patience because gosh, I am impatient sometimes. My, my brain sometimes works faster than my mouth. And when I'm around other people, I want them to speed up sometimes. I need to be more patient. So I sharpen my saw with those things. I sharpen my saw just being in the moment more and making sure I'm not too much in the future. Definitely stay away from the past unless it's fun memories or you really have to learn something from your past. But being in the present and just experiencing stuff like all this nature around me, I need more of that. So what do you need? What do you need to sharpen that can enhance your life, that can create win-win for you and those around you? What do you need to sharpen so you can keep the end in mind while you're in the moment, in the present? That's what I ask for you. That's your challenge today. How can you be more proactive? How can you synergize? How can you sharpen your saw? That's it for today.
I hope you enjoyed this episode. I'm going to say goodbye and thank you for coming on this lovely walk with me and my wife.
