The 7 Habits of highly Effective People. Stephen R. Covey

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What do I love about: 7 habits of highly effective people?

Another all-time piece. If you follow my books closely, you will realise so many pieces, I have codified as all time- pardon my inability to have preferences. This book I believe is the foundation of every principle espoused in books today. The idea of a need for a paradigm shift was thoroughly explained by the writer. I have included a list of all seven habits alongside my notes and free versions for your consumption. Thank me later

What do I not love about: 7 habits of highly effective people?

Zilch

Who should read: 7 habits of highly effective people?

I recommend this book to any personal development junkie.

Who should not read: 7 habits of highly effective people?

If you are fed up of self help and personal development you may find that you already know all that is contained herein.

My Notes on 7 habits of highly effective people

Habit 1: Be Proactive.

  • I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by conscious endeavour.
  • No one can hurt you without your consent
  • They cannot take away our self-respect if you do not give it to them.
  • LOVE is a verb. Reactive people make it a FEELING.

Habit 2: Begin with the end in mind.

  • What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.
  • MANAGEMENT is doing the right things; LEADERSHIP is doing things right.
  • You can be active in church and inactive in the gospel.
  • By centering our lives on timeless, unchanging principles, we create a fundamental paradigm of effective living. It is the CENTER that puts all centers in perspective.
  • The left hemisphere of the brain is more logical/ verbal one, and the right hemisphere the more intuitive, creative one.
  • He that is good with a hammer tends to think everything is a nail.

Habit 3: Put first things first

  • Things, which matter most, must never be at the mercy of things, which matter least-Goethe
  • Effective people are not PROBLEM-MINDED, they are OPPORTUNITY-MINDED- Peter Drucker.
  • Pareto Principle-80%of the result flows out of 20% of the activities.
  • If we delegate to time, we think EFFICIENCY. If we delegate to other people, we think EFFECTIVENESS.
  • There can be no friendship without CONFIDENCE, and no confidence without INTEGRITY.
  • One of the most important ways to manifest INTEGRITY is to be LOYAL to those who are not present.
  • To be TRUSTED, it is said, is greater than to be LOVED.

Habit 4: Think WIN/WIN

  • We have committed the GOLDEN RULE to memory; let us now commit it to life.
  • But you can’t change the fruit without changing the root.
  • Competition, not cooperation, lies at the core of the educational process.

Habit 5: Seek first to understand, then to be understood

  • The heart has its reason, which reason knows not
  • Commit to EMPATHETIC listening
  • MATURITY is the balance between COURAGE and CONSIDERATION.

Habit 6: Synergize

  • We seek not to imitate the master; rather we seek what they sought.
  • All people see the world not as it is, but as they are.

Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw

  • Sometimes when I consider what tremendous consequences come from little things, I am tempted to think they are no little things- Bruce Barton
  • SERVICE is the RENT we pay for living on this earth
  • Treat a man as he is and he will remain as he is. Treat a man as he should be and he will become as he can and should be
  • You cannot play with the animal in you without becoming wholly animal, play with falsehood without forfeiting your right to truth, play with cruelty without losing your sensitivity of mind. He who wants to keep his garden tidy does not reserve a plot for weeds.

Dimensions of Renewal

Physical– Exercise, Nutrition and Stress Management

Mental-Reading, Visualizing, Planning, Writing

Spiritual-Value clarification and commitment, study and meditation

Social/ Emotional– Service, Empathy, Synergy and Intrinsic security

Other interesting points from the 7 habits of highly effective people

  • We began to realise that if we wanted to change the situation, we first had to change ourselves. And to change ourselves effectively, we first had to change our PERCEPTION.
  • SMILING wins more friends than frowning.
  • Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe it can achieve
  • Search your heart with all diligence for out of it flows the issues of life
  • You always REAP what you SOW; there is no shortcut
  • CHARACTER speaks most eloquently
  • What you shouts so loudly in my ears I cannot hear what you say.
  • Where we STAND depends on where we SIT
  • A thousand- mile journey starts with the first single right step
  • How can we remember our ignorance, which our growth requires, when we are using our knowledge all the time?
  • Albert Einstein observed, “The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them”.
  • We must not cease from our exploration and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we began and to know the place for the first time.
  • We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an ACT, but a HABIT.
  • HABIT is the intersection of KNOWLEDGE, SKILL and DESIRE.
  • That which we obtain too EASILY, we esteem too LIGHTLY.
  • That which we persist in doing becomes easier- not that the nature of the task has changed, but our ability to do has increased- Emerson
  • We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience

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