THE 7 HABITS OF HIGHLY EFFECTIVE PEOPLE
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People was written by Stephen R. Covey in 1989. This book has been on the National Best Seller list for over 200 weeks. Many people have attended Covey’s seminars on the subject. Many companies have required top executives to read this book including AT & T, Dow Chemical, Ford, Deloitte and Touche, Marriott, Xerox and Ritz Carlton Hotels.
This book proposes that there are seven habits that can be learned to improve one’s personal and interpersonal effectiveness. Covey describes a habit as “the intersection of knowledge, skill and desire.” Knowledge would represent the “what to do”, skill the “how to do”, and desire the
“want to do”. In order to create a habit in our lives, we must have all three.
Habits 1, 2, and 3 relate to Private Victory with habit 4, 5, and 6 relating to Public Victories and
Habit 7 being involved with Renewal.
Habit one is to be proactive. This habit says that as human beings we are responsible for our own lives. Our behavior is a function of our decisions, not our conditions. We create our own destiny. The proactive person acts rather than waiting to be acted upon.
According to Covey, part of increasing our self-awareness is understanding our Circle of Concern, that is, our range of concern with which we have mental or emotional involvement. A Circle of Influence resides inside the Circle of Concern reflecting those things over which we have control.
Habit two is to begin with the end in mind. If we paint a visual image of what we want our life to be then we actually provide a frame of reference within which all our behaviors can be examined. We must understand where we are going. We should develop a personal mission statement. It will provide the basic direction of our lives. This statement will force us to give thought to our values and what we want to accomplish in life.
In the third habit, Covey tells us to put first things first. Independence is crucial in this habit.
Our personal integrity helps us to “walk our talk”. The strength of purpose enables us to do even those things we’d rather not, placing our value's first.
This habit requires good time management. If the issue is not high priority, we must say “no” to reserve time for those items that are high priority. Through this habit effective management leads to effec...
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... possible. This habit is making an investment in ourselves. This refers to taking care of our bodies. This includes eating right, getting enough sleep and engaging in regular exercise. Our physical well being will help us to be
more proactive. The spiritual dimension of our lives must also be renewed. This is achieved through prayer, music, reading, meditation or nature. This touches the center of our beings.
Sharpening the saw of the mental dimension comes through continuing education. Proactive people can figure out many ways to educate themselves. The best way to inform and expand your mind is through reading. Another tool used to sharpen the saw is through writing. Writing affects our ability to think, reason and to be understood effectively. One should spend one hour a day for the rest of your life sharpening the saw.
This book is truly a work of art. The information is easily understood and is well communicated. Covey gives so many down to earth examples that it is easy to gain knowledge personally and professionally. I highly recommend this book and will definitely take the study course the next time it is offered at Columbia State.
Pam Thomason
Whether they are positive or negative, our habits are an integral part of our lives. Because of this, when Professor James VanderMey addressed the 33rd annual Honors Convocation at Mid Michigan Community College, he decided to speak on the topic of habit. In his speech, entitled “Remarks on Habit,” VanderMey (argues against Sartre’s point of view by) discusses the advantages of having good habits, especially the habits represented by the Diploma Qualification Profile, a series of proficiencies that students learn as they are educated at Mid Michigan Community College. First, he shows that good habits lead to creative problem solving. Then, he argues that our habits make us who we are. Finally, he shows how good habits may grow and multiply. Habits, especially DQP habits, are positive and useful, because they allow one to think creatively, become a better person, and find innovative ways of doing.
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
Habits are choices that one continues to do repeatedly without actually thinking about them. Habits start with a decision, but they eventually become automatic. One can probably think about things we do every day that we wish we did less of, perhaps like binging Netflix, constantly checking social media, or snacking when not being hungry. If one can understand how habits are triggered, one can learn how to overcome them. The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg and “Rat Park” by Lauren Slater will reveal the main strategies to recognize and overcome habits. Angie Bachman, a women who developed a gambling habit due was well aware of her habits, but she continued to drag herself into debt, resulting in losing all that she owned and getting sued by
...sportation for that reason. This theory also explains how integrity, diligence, persistence play a key role in the success of individuals and therefore in the success of the entire community.
The more an individual frequently engages in positive or negative behavior, the greater the incidence of permanent change. If the behavior is positive and incorporated into everyday life, the result is “improved overall health, enhanced functional ability, and a better quality of life at all stages of development” for the patient (Pender, 2002). Competing demands such as children, employment, and prior obligations may interfere with an individual’s commitment to action. This can directly affect the outcome of participation and commitment in health behavior, but Pender noted that there is limited significance on its effects in comparison to all other
When you take control of your life, you become aware that everything you do makes an impact - good or bad.
The first three habits include “Be Proactive; Begin with the End in Mind, and Put First Things First” encircle movements from a reliance state to a state of autonomy. The first habit ”Be Proactive” suggest that readers should take strong initiative in life through realization that decisions are the key determining factor that reflects individuals effectiveness in life. The individual, therefore, should take responsibility for the choices and potential consequences of those choices. The second habit which states "Begin with the End in Mind" ascertain that individuals should self discover and clarify deeply their important characters, goals, objectives and values in their lives. In regards to this, individuals should be able to predict the ideal personalities for each of their various relationships and roles in life. The third habit “Put First Thing First” explains that individuals particularly managers should be able to manage their own personality. Additionally, Steven C...
Covey, Stephen R. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Restoring the Character Ethic. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1989.
Persisting is not an unfamiliar habit for me and I use it in many ways in my day to day life. Whether it be a small task like getting through loads of clothes on laundry day or a big task like finishing school with a masters degree no matter what, I push myself and I use persistent thinking methods to help me overcome any adversities I may face. Since I already used persistence in my thinking before reading habits, the one thing I took from it was how I could use it more as a thinking method. Managing Impulsivity has always been a blessing and a curse for me because I have struggled in the past with indecisiveness. I do favor weighing out all my options when I am met with a new task, however, habits has taught me to organize all my options.
... of evolution in the 8th habit by encouraging us to live life with an open-mind and heart. Challenging us, the readers, to look beyond what is in front of our faces. Showing and explaining the readers that it is possible to succeed in both, personal and professional lives. Dr. Covey teaches people what it takes to be a leader and the roles that an effective leader will display and encourage from their daily interactions. An effective leader will understand the need to establish a common purpose, giving the sense of direction for other to build upon in their way. Dr. Covey also illustrates how the basics are an essential to continual growth. Reiterating how the 7 habits helps build upon the 8th habit. Stephen Covey believes that, we as a human race are capable of so much more than we ever anticipated if we just open up our minds and hearts to one another.
First habit is being proactive, in order to apply this habit in our lives or in the office we need to know the opposite first. Reactive people always focus on the things they cannot control. For example, their boss, the amount of work, distance to the office. A proactive person will look for solutions instead of problems, and that what sets us apart from animals, is our ability to differentiate and learn to adapt. To apply this habit in a work environment a person needs to tell him that complaining is not going to help me even if all of my problems were right a valid, then he needs to tell him that he will focus on what he can control. Questions asked, how can I improve myself? How can I make a good impression with people? To overcome my problems and build a network? Habit number two is begin with the end in mind. This habit and the previous one are focused on changing a person to go from being dependence to independence. Habit two gives us a tool to use to evaluate our purpose of hard working to achieve higher income, more money, and prestige. But have we stopped to think it over what is the purpose of all that? Do they matter? “It 's incredibly easy to get caught up in an activity trap, in the busyness of life, to work harder and harder at climbing the ladder of success only to discover that it 's leaning against the wrong wall.” (Stephen R. Covey,
Being proactive is the first step in the seven habit journey. I thought I was proactive because I always had to plan everything in my life. Family vacations, work schedules, continuing education all were events that I was proud to say I planned right down to the last detail. Reading the Covey material I realized that being proactive went much deeper than just planning life events. Being proactive involves choosing my attitude, focusing on my circle of influence and not my circle of concern, and turning setbacks into triumphs. Being proactive means to act based on principles not emotions. We all need a pause button that would allow us to stop during that time between...
three of these virtues ties well together to help me become the best version of myself.
The SCT is important to health education because it utilizes differing areas, cognition, environment and behaviors to understand behavior change. This theory’s constructs give a range of opportunities to research behavior. Several important factors to the SCT are a person’s abilities to foresee outcomes, learn by observing others, self-regulation and self-determined behavior and to analyze behavior and experiences. The person, the behavior and the environment interact to determine how one will behave. There are several major concepts implicated in the SCT: environment, situation, behavioral capability, expectations, expectancy, self-control, observed learning, reinforcements, self-efficacy, and coping strategies.
Rising early, drinking coffee in the morning, using bad language it’s all our habits. Today we are doing to talk about habits in education and how the effect out study process. According to Webster’s New World Dictionary,’’ Habit is a thing done often and hence usually, done easily. It is a pattern of actions that become so automatic that it is difficult to break.