Introduction

The 7 habits of highly effective people by Stephen R Covey was my first personal development book I ever read. I was encouraged to read it by my mother who had benefited greatly from the tape years earlier.

To be honest, the first time I read it, it sort of glazed over me (i was 19 at the time). But a year or two later I decided to pick it up again. This time the power really came through and I understood the concepts a hell of a lot more.

In this post, I’ll illustrate the powerful habits that have helped changed my life. I wanted to pick out the best parts that I feel are important to describe so you can reap the benefits as well 🙂 After all, most of our life is just made up of our habits, so if we change our habits, we can basically change our lives.

Now onto habit no.1

Habit 1#: BE PROACTIVE

The first habit in the 7 habits of highly effective people is to be Proactive! Stephen R. Covey describes the two circles that shape our world, the circle of concern, and the circle of influence. The circle of concern (outer circle) consists of all the things we have NO control over. For example, the weather, economy, politics, what others think about us and people’s opinions.

Secondly, the circle of influence (the inner circle) consists of all the things we CAN control, like our attitude, work ethic, education and habits. By being proactive and focusing on the inner circle, we can take steps to drastically improve our quality of life, instead of relying on external factors!

This book blew me away when I first read, so many paradigm shifts were happening in my head when I listened to the tape. R. Covey describes the two ways you can go about living your life, which is that you can be REACTIVE to your situations, or PROACTIVE to your situations.

Reactive people complain about the outer circle (circle of concern, which is pointless!) Whereas proactive people only focus on the inner circle ( What they CAN control). Hence why proactive people are generally happier and achieve more success!

• The principle of habit 1# is to take responsibility of your responses to life and take massive positive action on your decisions. Simple 🙂

Habit 2#: Begin with the end in mind

Measure twice, cut once!

Carpenters rule.

Beginning with the end mind is a mindset where you figure out where you want to go before you even start. The benefit is that every decision of every day is based on the end goal you want to achieve!

How amazing would it be to wake up every day knowing you’re moving closer to your goal?! I like saying” You need to have a map or you’ll be aimlessly wandering around not providing any real value to the world”.

A huge mistake people make is they work towards things that don’t give long-lasting fulfillment. Like, money, fame, material items or a job that is not suited to their values. These decisions are often made in the moment and are not planned out ahead of time.

• The takeaway from habit #2 is to take the time to create a personal mission statement write down your ideal life in 5-10-20 years. What will your ideal life look like? What interests you, and how will you go about learning how to get there?

Habit 3#: Put First Things First

In society, the top-performers plan out their days based on their deepest priorities! Whereas, ineffective people continuously get caught up in minor tasks that consume most if not all of their energy!

Stephen R.Covey illustrates that by focusing on the few critical tasks FIRST, leaves us time and energy to accomplish them properly.

I really really love this habit as it priorities my day by getting rid of all the unnecessary clutter of day to day life. It really allows us to focus on the big important things first.

• Habit 3# take away is to just focus on organizing your important tasks FIRST then worry about the rest after. Don’t think about “time” just focus on the TASKS! Remember, you’re not managing time, your managing yourself. So just get done what is most important to you! 🙂 Done!

Habit 4#: Think “WIN-WIN”

I absolutely love Habit 4# the “win-win” mindset. Because its the mindset of abundance, it’s the mutual benefit of yourself and the other people! Whether it’s in business, personal relationships, family, buying a product, you can apply the win-win mindset in any area in life to achieve better results!

In his book, Stephen R.Covey explains thinking win-win is the best way to conduct your behavior because there is plenty to go around so you don’t have to be threatened by other people’s knowledge, success or achievements.

When people compare how they stack up (or how they look) to other people within the social hierarchy, there always in a state of anxiety. “Are they winning or losing compared to me?”. Ultimately it’s a losers game! Because the thinking is scarcity! There’s not enough for everyone!

What’s worse is that people end up losing themselves because they want the other person to lose so badly, by making sure the other person doesn’t win. Which is self-sabotaging (Lose-Lose!).

• Habit 4# takeaway, Stephen. Covey explains that if we can’t agree on a win-win solution then its a no-deal. And that’s ok! If a mutual benefit cannot be reached then we don’t move ahead. We only seek to benefit ourselves and the other person involved, because the abundance mindset is focused on win-win. We only win if the other person wins too! Ultimately we all win!

Habit 5#: Seek To Understand Then To Be Understood

When dealing with people, KNOWLEDGE IS KEY! That’s why habit 5# is the importance of understanding the person before moving forward with whatever it is your doing. You’ll be HEAPS more affective!

Stephen relates the need to be understood like “air”, we need it to function properly. Its the same with people. If we cant relate to someone we’re not going to listen to them.

My favorite quote Stephen R. Covey says in this section Is when being effective with people “Fast is slow, and slow is fast”. So take it slow and focus on making progress!

Habit 6#: Synergize

The purpose of synergy is to create completely new methods, new ideas, new processes with people that end up being far BETTER than something we could produce on our own.

It’s like when two people are arguing over what to do, one person wants to do it his way and the other person wants to do it the other way. Instead of compromising (which most people would do) you should SYNERGIZE and create a whole new outcome. As a result, you’ll both learn and grow from the experience.

It’s the realization that you can become A HELL OF A LOT MORE when you work together towards a common goal. The idea is to take advantage of each other’s strengths!

So if you’re working or trying to achieve something with someone, don’t compromise! Work out a solution and create something better!

Habit 7#: Sharpen The Saw

The last habit of the 7 habits of highly effective people Stephen R. Covey explains that the most effective people in the world are always constantly renewing in the 4 dimensions of life.

• Physical
• Mental
• Spiritual
• Emotional

If you wanna be happy, you have to keep on renewing your skills in these 4 areas, otherwise, you can become complacent and sloppy.

Imagine for a second that the way you’ve been doing something was no longer as effective as it once was. How would you know? What if your job was no longer bettering your situation and moving you in the right direction. Only by sharpening the saw can you identify your week spots to make sure you’re moving forward as efficiently as possible!

In the old days, you used to be able to get rich by working, nowadays you have to work your whole life to get there. Now there are new tools you can use that will get you there faster! You just have to keep learning by sharpening the saw!

Understanding habit #7 is the gift that KEEPS ON GIVING. It’s exciting to know you can continuously keep running leveraging your strengths to keep getting better results!

Summary

The 7 habits of highly effective people by Stephen R.Covey is an excellent book for anyone who wants to start being more effective in their business or personal life.

To get what we want we have to be effective with people! Thats the short summary of this book.

By taking in the lessons from this article you’ll be able to achieve A LOT more success, whether in business, health, money, and relationships.

I highly recommend this book for anyone looking at wanting to start finding out what they wanna do in life, or if they just want to get better at anything really.

These habits have massively positively impacted my life in such a big way. I can join the dots with a lot of things from this book and It makes it easier to identify problems and to correct course!