Habits of Highly Effective People Stephen R. Covey analyzes the deep-rooted character traits that define a genuinely successful human being. As opposed to the personality ethic, which consists of superficial manipulative motives and offers only short-term success, Covey investigates the character ethic -- a paradigm of living which ensures long-term success by forcing a person to live by universal, enduring principles of goodness which cannot be faked.
Habit 1: Be Proactive
"Between stimulus and response, man has the freedom to choose."
This is Covey's way of summarizing the human ability to choose how they will respond to life's challenges; an ability that is uniquely human. While other creatures are truly slaves to genetics, upbringing, and environment, human beings have the amazing capacity for self-awareness. This means we have an incredible amount of control over our own destinies; we can take a step back from ourselves and decide how we want to live out our lives, regardless of our so-called "luck." Between the time we receive a stimulus and the time when we respond to that stimulus, we have time to reflect and choose how we will approach life. This is our chance to "subordinate an impulse to a value." This is a wonderful ability to have, yet it carries a tremendous personal responsibility. We can no longer blame our genes, our parents, our boss, our job, or our neighbors for any of the choices we make in life. We must be proactively in charge and engaged at all times. Then we are in control of our own character, and nothing or no one can hurt our character unless we allow it.
Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind
Some people believe that whether we enter heaven or hell upon dying depends on the way we look back at our life. If we feel successful and loved, if we feel that we have been hard-working and true, we will feel a great joy upon dying a reflecting on our lifetime. On the other hand, regardless of our material success, if we've failed to foster deep and lasting relationships and commitments, we will likely feel a great sense of loss and bitterness at the prospect of death. This "end," the ultimate day of reckoning that determines our true success as a human being based on the values we've upheld over the years, is the idea that Covey wants us to keep in mind for Habit #2. If we keep this "end" in mind when choosing our "stimulus-responses," we are much more likely to make character-based, ethically-sound decisions that have a positive impact on our lives. If we have a mental "map" of everything we want to accomplish in life, particularly in terms of the way others will speak of us after we are gone, we will be taking a powerful personal leadership role in our own lives. We will not be subject to impulsive, emotion-based choices that seem attractive in the short-term but will backfire in the long-run. By taking advantage of our capacities for imagination, conscience, and self-awareness, we can write our own personal "script" for life, rather than being a slave to externally-imposed scripts.
We can begin this journey by focusing on the center of our "Circle of Influence" in life, or "the lens through which we see the world." From this vantage point, we need to write out a personal mission statement or personal philosophy to live by, that we can refer to at any time we feel a need for guidance. This personal mission statement should be based on the kind of person you want to be and the things you want to achieve ("roles and goals"), according to universal ethical principles. As Covey mentions, you cannot achieve lasting success if this personal philosophy speaks from any center other than a right-brained, philosophic center based on these principles. Some examples of faulty centers include family, money, work, possessions, pleasure, friend, enemy, church, self, or spouse. Allowing yourself to remain centered on any of these things, as opposed to principles themselves, will prevent you from becoming the most successful person you can be.
Habit 3: Put First Things First
This habit refers to...
Book Review of - The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People- Stephen R. Covey Overview of the content Author: Stephen R. Covey Title: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People Publisher: Free Press Place: New York Date of Publication: 1988 Number of Pages: 381 Covey’s work on self-improvement titled ‘The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People’ is grounded in the author’s view that one’s worldview is wholly based on individual assessments. For altering any situation, there is a
Covey, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People Stephen R. Covey was born in 1932 in Salt Lake City, Utah; he has his undergraduate degree (in business administration) from the University of Utah, an MBA from the Harvard Business School, and a Doctorate in Religious Education from Brigham Young University. (Covey is a practicing Mormon). He is currently a professor in the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business at Utah State University.
" Independent will is defined by Covey as "the ability to make decisions and choices and to act in accordance with them. It is the ability to act, rather than be acted upon" (148). This goes back to Covey's original principle regarding being proactive. While the ideas of being proactive and prioritizing are widely accepted as essential parts of effective management, where Covey seems to go off track a bit in
In this case, each chapter highlights the significance of each habit. Below, I briefly highlight each of the seven 'habits' which are amongst the basic concepts the book concerns itself with. The first habit Covey talks about in this case is being proactive. This habit underscores the importance of acting on the basis of principles as opposed to circumstance or emotion. Indeed, based on its insistence on the ability of
Leadership at Sea and Seven Habits of Highly Effective Sailors The irony is unavoidable. I began reading Seven Habits of Highly Effective People when I was feeling at my least effective, personally, as a human being and as a child. I suppose I'm not alone in saying this, though. The fact of a parent's death makes every child feel ineffective, unable to cope with family grief and stress, as well
In an article by David Carlone, he measures how these principles contribute to the success of military organizations. This study was especially interesting because the participants in the military unit that Carlone studied were required to participate in a 3 day seminar where Covey's book was the central text. The military participants found team working of course particularly useful, such as those in habit 5 regarding listening and being
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