Self-Improvement
by Stephen R. Covey
What makes someone effective?
Stephen Covey studied two centuries of American writing on success and noticed a shift. Early books stressed character, which he calls the Character Ethic. Later ones stressed technique and image, the Personality Ethic. Covey sides with character, built from the inside out, and sets it out as seven habits.
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Habits one to three (Be Proactive, Begin with the End in Mind, Put First Things First) take you from dependence to independence, the private victory. Four to six (Think Win-Win, Seek First to Understand, Synergise) win the public victory. The seventh, Sharpen the Saw, keeps it all going.
Habit 1 is Be Proactive. Covey draws two circles. Your Circle of Concern holds everything you worry about, such as the economy or your boss's temper. Your Circle of Influence holds what you can actually act on. Proactive people put their energy there, and the circle grows.
Habit 2 is Begin with the End in Mind. Covey asks you to picture your own funeral. Four people speak, one each from your family, your friends, your work and your community. What would you want them to say? Your answer is the start of a personal mission statement.
Habit 3 is Put First Things First. Covey sorts tasks by whether they're urgent and whether they're important. Effective people, he says, spend their time in Quadrant II, the important but not urgent, such as planning, building relationships and preventing problems. Do enough of that and the crises shrink.
Be proactive
Something happens, and you get a moment before you react. What you do with that moment is up to you.
Circle of influence
Spend your energy on what you can change, not on everything you worry about.
End in mind
Picture your own funeral. What you hope people say there tells you how to live now.
Quadrant II
Important work is rarely urgent, so it gets pushed aside. Plan time for it on purpose.
Win-win
Look for deals where both sides come out ahead, or agree not to deal at all.
A story from the book
On a quiet Sunday subway in New York, Covey watched a man sit silently while his children ran riot. Irritated, Covey asked him to control them. The man said they'd just left the hospital, where their mother had died about an hour before. Covey's irritation vanished. That's a paradigm shift.
One thing to try
Covey suggests planning a week at a time. This Sunday, list your main roles, such as parent, manager or friend. Pick one important but not urgent goal for each, like a proper talk with your daughter or an hour on the budget, and put it in the diary first.
Knotd has the key ideas from 250+ non-fiction books, each in a few minutes, in plain words. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People comes with a Name That Idea round and a Your Move story to make it stick.
Get the whole book on KnotdOpen in the appWhat makes someone effective? Stephen Covey studied two centuries of American writing on success and noticed a shift. Early books stressed character, which he calls the Character Ethic. Later ones stressed technique and image, the Personality Ethic. Covey sides with character, built from the inside out, and sets it out as seven habits.
Private victory first; Your Circle of Influence; Start at your own funeral; Live in Quadrant II.
Covey suggests planning a week at a time. This Sunday, list your main roles, such as parent, manager or friend. Pick one important but not urgent goal for each, like a proper talk with your daughter or an hour on the budget, and put it in the diary first.
Yes. Knotd has the key ideas from The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People in a few minutes, in plain words, plus a Name That Idea round and a Your Move story to test them. It's one of 250+ non-fiction books in the app.
