The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
Habit 1: Be Proactive
"Habit 1 is the key to unlocking all the other habits and that's why it comes first. It says, "I am the captain of my life. I can choose my attitude. I'm responsible for my own happiness or unhappiness. I am in the driver's seat of my destiny, not just a passenger."
Is about taking responsibility for your life. You can't keep blaming everything on your parents or grandparents. Proactive people recognize that they are "response-able. All of these external forces act as stimuli that we respond to. Between the stimulus and the response is your greatest power--you have the freedom to choose your response. One of the most important things you choose is what you say. Your language is a good indicator of how you see yourself.
"Control your own destiny or someone else will." (Jack Welch)
"When you know where you intend to end up, you know where you are now." (Covey)
I think that when you want to achieve something you should keep in your mind what will be the end. In that way you will be able to have done everything you want to do, because the habits means that you wants to do or make every time, you need to learn how to always and always practice it.Is based on imagination--the ability to envision in your mind what you cannot at present see with your eyes. It is based on the principle that all things are created twice.Begin with the end in mind means to begin each day, task, or project with a clear vision of your desired direction and destination, and then continue by flexing your proactive muscles to make things happen.
Habit 3: Put First Things First
"Organize and execute around priorities."
To live a more balanced existence, you have to recognize that not doing everything that comes along is okay. There's no need to overextend yourself. All it takes is realizing that it's all right to say no when necessary and then focus on your highest priorities.
Habit 4: Think Win-Win
"Think win-win or no deal."
Win-win sees life as a cooperative arena, not a competitive one. Win-win is a frame of mind and heart that constantly seeks mutual benefit in all human interactions. Win-win means agreements or solutions are mutually beneficial and satisfying.
Habit 5: Seek First to Understand, then to be Understood
"Diagnose before you prescribe."
If you're like most people, you probably seek first to be understood; you want to get your point across. And in doing so, you may ignore the other person completely, pretend that you're listening, selectively hear only certain parts of the conversation or attentively focus on only the words being said, but miss the meaning entirely.
Habit 6: Synergize
"The whole is greater than the sum of its parts (1+1=3)"
To put it simply, synergy means "two heads are better than one." Synergize is the habit of creative cooperation. It is teamwork, open-mindedness, and the adventure of finding new solutions to old problems. But it doesn't just happen on its own. It's a process, and through that process, people bring all their personal experience and expertise to the table. Together, they can produce far better results that they could individually. Synergy lets us discover jointly things we are much less likely to discover by ourselves. It is the idea that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. One plus one equals three, or six, or sixty--you name it.
Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw
The Four Dimensions of Self-Renewal: Physical, Mental, Spiritual, Social/Emotional
Sharpen the Saw means preserving and enhancing the greatest asset you have--you. It means having a balanced program for self-renewal in the four areas of your life.s you renew yourself in each of the four areas, you create growth and change in your life. Sharpen the Saw keeps you fresh so you can continue to practice the other six habits. You increase your capacity to produce and handle the challenges around you. Without this renewal, the body becomes weak, the mind mechanical, the emotions raw, the spirit insensitive, and the person selfish. Not a pretty picture, is it?
Feeling good doesn't just happen. Living a life in balance means taking the necessary time to renew yourself. It's all up to you. You can renew yourself through relaxation. Or you can totally burn yourself out by overdoing everything. You can pamper yourself mentally and spiritually. Or you can go through life oblivious to your well-being.
REFLECTION: I think that all of these habits help us to build ourselves better to know how to ameliorate each situation.Learning just 7 habits to become more effective seemed like just the quick fix I was looking for back then. I figured I could learn a few more habits, after all the habits I was trying to break I don’t remember trying to learn in the first place. When I completed reading his book, I recall feeling a new found sense of order in how to approach life and work.The two habits that seem most important to me back then remain the same today. Habit number 5: “Seek first to understand and then to be understood.” This habit serves as the cornerstone in our consulting practice and our work managing student housing on campus. Habit number 3: “Put first things first.” This habit I would change up a little today. When we work with universities in our consulting practice or helping to turn around a campus housing program one of the greatest challenges is searching for the “first things.” It is like peeling an onion one layer at time. An action plan will always follow if we chose the right “first things” to work on. What took on greater meaning in my second reading of Covey’s book was his concept of personality ethics and character ethics and the role each play in success. Covey defines it like this. Personality ethics is doing or acting in a certain way. Character ethics is the act of being yourself. It seems to me organizations can draw on the same distension.
Habit 3: Put First Things First"Organize and execute around priorities."
To live a more balanced existence, you have to recognize that not doing everything that comes along is okay. There's no need to overextend yourself. All it takes is realizing that it's all right to say no when necessary and then focus on your highest priorities.
Habit 4: Think Win-Win
"Think win-win or no deal."
Win-win sees life as a cooperative arena, not a competitive one. Win-win is a frame of mind and heart that constantly seeks mutual benefit in all human interactions. Win-win means agreements or solutions are mutually beneficial and satisfying. Habit 5: Seek First to Understand, then to be Understood
"Diagnose before you prescribe."If you're like most people, you probably seek first to be understood; you want to get your point across. And in doing so, you may ignore the other person completely, pretend that you're listening, selectively hear only certain parts of the conversation or attentively focus on only the words being said, but miss the meaning entirely.
Habit 6: Synergize
"The whole is greater than the sum of its parts (1+1=3)"
To put it simply, synergy means "two heads are better than one." Synergize is the habit of creative cooperation. It is teamwork, open-mindedness, and the adventure of finding new solutions to old problems. But it doesn't just happen on its own. It's a process, and through that process, people bring all their personal experience and expertise to the table. Together, they can produce far better results that they could individually. Synergy lets us discover jointly things we are much less likely to discover by ourselves. It is the idea that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. One plus one equals three, or six, or sixty--you name it. Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw
The Four Dimensions of Self-Renewal: Physical, Mental, Spiritual, Social/Emotional
Sharpen the Saw means preserving and enhancing the greatest asset you have--you. It means having a balanced program for self-renewal in the four areas of your life.s you renew yourself in each of the four areas, you create growth and change in your life. Sharpen the Saw keeps you fresh so you can continue to practice the other six habits. You increase your capacity to produce and handle the challenges around you. Without this renewal, the body becomes weak, the mind mechanical, the emotions raw, the spirit insensitive, and the person selfish. Not a pretty picture, is it? Feeling good doesn't just happen. Living a life in balance means taking the necessary time to renew yourself. It's all up to you. You can renew yourself through relaxation. Or you can totally burn yourself out by overdoing everything. You can pamper yourself mentally and spiritually. Or you can go through life oblivious to your well-being.
REFLECTION: I think that all of these habits help us to build ourselves better to know how to ameliorate each situation.Learning just 7 habits to become more effective seemed like just the quick fix I was looking for back then. I figured I could learn a few more habits, after all the habits I was trying to break I don’t remember trying to learn in the first place. When I completed reading his book, I recall feeling a new found sense of order in how to approach life and work.The two habits that seem most important to me back then remain the same today. Habit number 5: “Seek first to understand and then to be understood.” This habit serves as the cornerstone in our consulting practice and our work managing student housing on campus. Habit number 3: “Put first things first.” This habit I would change up a little today. When we work with universities in our consulting practice or helping to turn around a campus housing program one of the greatest challenges is searching for the “first things.” It is like peeling an onion one layer at time. An action plan will always follow if we chose the right “first things” to work on. What took on greater meaning in my second reading of Covey’s book was his concept of personality ethics and character ethics and the role each play in success. Covey defines it like this. Personality ethics is doing or acting in a certain way. Character ethics is the act of being yourself. It seems to me organizations can draw on the same distension.
