THE SEVEN HABITS OF HIGHLY EFFECTIVE PEOPLE BY STEPHEN R. COVEY

The seven habits of highly effective people is the enormously influential self-help phenomenon that can teach you the principles of effectiveness. Once you make these principles into habits, you will be well on your way to more success, both in your personal and professional life.

This is an awesome book, a life changing book, that would cause you to start thinking differently and effectively too and move you forward ever in life. Do you wish you were more effective in life? Maybe you’d like to achieve more at work? Or perhaps you’d like to be a more loving and devoted partner? Whatever it is that you want to improve, you’ll only get there if you change yourself first. And the surest way to achieve lasting personal change is to develop better habits.

For a lasting change, you have to address your character not just your behavior. According to the author, there are two ways to strive for improvements in your life. The first method is to work on the skills necessary for the behavior you desire. For instance if you want to improve your relationships with others, you might study communication or body language techniques. This technique is called personality ethic. The second method of improving yourself is through what is called Character Ethic. This method is more effective because the first method is actually just a shortcut. Working on your character  that is, the fundamental habits and belief systems that form your view of the world. Only behaviour stemming straight from your character will endure over time, because, sooner or later, your true character will shine through.

According to the author everything we understand about the world is tinted by our own paradigms. For instance a person with a negative paradigm will perceive getting lost in an unknown city as a frustrating waste of time, while someone with a more positive paradigm might see it as an unexpected adventure. The most effective paradigms are the ones aligned with larger universal principles, like fairness, honesty and integrity. Since the majority of people agree that these principles are good, we can see them as permanent natural laws.

Therefore the more accurately your map of paradigms reflects  this landscape of natural principles, the more realistic your view and the better your chances of success on in attaining lasting change. According to the author, attaining this kind of principle-based paradigm is exactly what the seven habits are all about.

THE SEVEN HABITS OF HIGHLY EFFECTIVE PEOPLE

1.   Be proactive and take control of your own fate: What distinguishes humans from animals? One crucial difference is that animals are slaves to external stimuli, and can only react to these stimuli in the preprogrammed way that is in their nature. We humans, in contrast, can reflect on a stimulus before responding to it and we can even preprogram ourselves to respond in a specific desirable way. This means that instead of just reacting to the world around us , we have the ability to pro-actively  influence it. Do not be reactive, you may not be able to control or stop things from happening but you sure have the power to determine how you respond to it.

2.   Begin with the end in mind: Whenever you perform an action, you are actually performing it twice; first  in your mind, when you imagine it, and physically when you do it. That is why it is crutial to have the desired end firmly in your mind before you start any task. The more exact and realistic the mental picture of the action is, the better its execution will be and hence the better the result.

3.   Put first things first: To prioritize your work, focus on what is important, meaning the things that brings you closer to your vision of the future. Don’t get distracted by urgent but ultimately unimportant tasks.

4.   Think win-win: When negotiating with others, don’t try to get the biggest slice of the pie, but rather find a division that is acceptable and beneficial to all parties. You’ll still get your fair share and build strong positive relationships in the process.

5.   Seek to understand, then to be understood: When someone presents us with a problem, we often jump right to prescribing a solution. This is a mistake, we should first take time to really listen to the other and only then make recommendations.

6.   Synergize: Adopt the guiding principle that the contributions of moany will far exceed the sum total of individual contribution, this will help you to achieve goals you could never have reached on your own.

7.   Sharpen the saw: Don’t work yourself to death. Strive for a sustainable lifestyle that affords you time to recuperate and recharge, so that you can stay effective in the long – term.

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