7 Habits Of Highly Effective Teens Book Report

Do you ever feel that life is getting so busy and stressful that you just wish you could go back to grade 1 where you just colour and play with toys all day? Well sadly, I can’t arrange it for you to go back in time but, I can help you in a way where you could have enough time to play with toys and feel at ease again. I have recently discovered a majestic book called the 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens by Sean Covey. You may be thinking “Another useless book written by adults? N thank you.” But you are wrong. Many teenagers just like you and me have participated in writing this book by writing their own stories of how this book helped them. This book is split into 3 sections. PBA & Habits 1-3: Private Victory, Habits 4-6: Public Victory

and lastly Habit 7 is Renewal. Right now, I am going to introduce you to the first 3 habits and the personal bank account, or the private victory, and its’s the most important section so make sure to thoroughly red this without skimming through the words. This will change your life; I can promise you that.
The Personal Bank Account (PBA), is the first step to becoming a highly effective teen.

The PBA is not a literal bank account where you would put money in, but it will make you rich. The PBA is a way to keep track of yourself. Now, you could either make deposits or withdrawals but remember, you only want to make deposits you’ll be broke! Some examples of making deposits are keeping promises to yourself to accomplish more. If you make a promise to yourself and break it, you’re taking a withdrawal, especially if it was important to you. Another way to insert deposits if you are patient with yourself. Give yourself some time. The last thing I want mention is to be yourself because that’s the best thing you can do for yourself. On page 38 in The Habits book, Sean Covey quotes singer-actress Judy Garland, “Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else.” This means that if you are yourself, you’ll be unique an one of a kind, but, if you try to be someone you are not, you’ll only be a fake version of that person. Not yourself. This PBA will help you be the best-rate version of yourself so make sure to fill it up

infinitely.

The second step to becoming a highly effective teen is Habit 1: Be Proactive. What is being proactive? Proactive: adjective; creating or controlling a situation rather than just responding to it after it had happened. You see, I never preferred dictionaries for this reason, because if I were you I still wouldn’t understand it. Thankfully, you have me to help. Being proactive is like being positive and handling problems in an orderly manner. There are 4 steps to becoming proactive; choice, control, mindset and action. Teens need to know the choice is theirs to be proactive or reactive. No one is responsible or how you choose to act. Control is knowing what you have a say in and what you don’t. Don’t be a control freak but don’t be a pushover. The third step is mindset, a growth-mindset. That means you are willing to change on the inside for the better. The last step to proactivity is action. After you’ve learned all of this, you’ve got to apply it to your daily life with all the little things. Sean Covey has a great checklist to remind you if you are being proactive on page 70. It states “Are you in the driver’s seat of your life or are you merely a passenger? Are you conducting your symphony or simply being played? Are you acting like a can of soda pop or a bottle of water?” Those questions make you think about the main ideas of this habit hopefully to know if you are succeeding or not. Always remember, be proactive and not reactive.

This is the second last step to conquering yourself. Begin with the End in Mind. Basically, set a finishing line for yourself and run towards it. Pave your pathway before you blindly walk through it and end up getting lost. One way you can start to pave your pathway is by making your personal statement. A personal statement is anything that inspires you to keep going or something you want to live by. It could be a quote, a poem or even song lyrics. Page 81, paragraph 4, mentions a teenager who chose her personal from a song. “I will live by my own policies. I will sleep with a clear conscience. I will sleep in peace.” From Sinead O’Connor’s song Emperor’s New Clothes. The moral of that personal statement is she will follow habit 1 by making her own life choices and being at peace. While you follow the path you create for yourself, you will come to uncover some of your talents and interests. Youth is all about discovery after all. Life is short, so while you live it, enjoy it and do what you love.

Finally, we’re at the last stop on our trip and after this, we shall discover a new road.

Habit 3 is Put First Things First. Personally, I struggled with putting first things first as I was a procrastinator but, I have finally conquered myself and I am no longer in Quadrant 1! You see, there are different time quadrants which tell you if you are a 1. Procrastinator, 2. Prioritizer, 3. Yes-Man and 4. Slacker. You need to always stay on top of things and stay in quadrant 2 but it’s not easy, so you must work very hard for it to become a natural thing for you. Another way to becoming a prioritizer is to realize what your big rocks are and what your small rocks are. In other words, take notice of what is important first and those will be your big rocks to accomplish first. Only then will you have space for all the small rocks. Lastly, don’t let fear control you, control your fear. It’s okay to make mistakes if you’re trying to do the right thing. On page 121 in the 7 Habits book, Sean Covey says “Winning means rising each time you fail.” This is telling you that although you failed, if you are willing to rise and try again and pick up your broken pieces, that is winning. This is a hard habit to conquer but once you do it, it will change your

life.

That my friends, is how you conquer yourself. Enlightening, isn’t it? If you have succeeded with these habits, I congratulate because you are now ready to move on to the Public Victory. If not, worry not, because you still have a lot of time so don’t get stressed out. This book will certainly change your life as it has for me, especially with prioritizing! Also, if you have not yet read the 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens, I suggest you do so because it will be a life changing treasure (I promise you this blog is not sponsored by Sean Covey). I hope this makes you want to get off your couch and start making a change in your life right now. It has been your favorite daily blogger, Admin Val. Have a great life changing day!