7 habits of highly effective people summary
7 habits of highly effective people – written by Stephen R. Covey
This book is considered as one of the most inspiring and impactful books ever written.
And it truly feels that way as well after reading it.
Applying these lessons to a daily routine does impact your surrounding to a greater extent.
I’m not going to spoil the book for you here but I’m going to share what I took from it,
So, let’s continue without delay,
7 habits of highly effective people summary
Inside-Out
Here you’ll learn about personality and character ethics, and importance of paradigms and paradigm changes.
Now what all these mean,
Personality ethics are your communication skills, public behavior, attitude etc,
Character ethics is what you are like as a person, what’s really inside you.
Paradigms here are your beliefs and things that grew up believing.
Some points that you are absolutely going to love in Inside-Out section are,
The way you see the problem is the problem
A new level of thinking and
P/Pc which means production and production capacity.
I’m going to leave this here because it is much interesting to read in the book.
Now moving on to habits,
Habit 1: Be Proactive
There’ stimulus and response following any action,
And in between that you have the freedom to choose your response.
So, being proactive means being aware and actively choosing your responses,
Taking the initiative in solving problems, instead of complaining
And unless and until you don’t act, you are going to be acted upon.
Being proactive also means working inside your Circle of influence,
Which is the things you can control.
And whatever you decide know that there will be consequences and be ready for it.
Every decision you make towards something is a decision against something else.
Habit 2: Begin with the end in mind
Here the author creates a scenario where you imagine the day of your death,
And on that day, how you want people to remember you.
When you know what you expect from people to say about you that day,
Then start working to achieve and be that person.
Start writing a personal mission statement, and try living up to it.
And some points to really dig deep in,
All things are created twice,
Leadership and management – The two creations
Rescripting- Becoming your own creator.
Using your whole brain,
Two ways to tap into right brain.
There is still so much in this habit to learn so don’t wait and start reading already.
Habit 3: Put first things first.
Here you will learn the power of independent will,
“Successful people have a habit of doing things that failures don’t like to do.”
What it means is that you should have the strength to choose what’s important and do it first.
And this habit also sheds light over time management.
We are to work in Quadrant II here,
And then learning to say no, when you already have your hands full with stuff to do by yourself.
Two interesting points in this habit,
Gofer delegation and Stewardship delegation.
Up until habit 3 everything we learn is about Personal Victory and from habit 4 to habit 6 we learn Public victory.
But before that some things to look at,
The emotional bank account, just like in bank accounts we deposit money and when in need withdraw some,
In emotional bank account we deposit trust, love, friendship and so on.
Habit 4: Think win/win
Thinking win/win will allow you to have better relations with people around you,
Instead of just caring about yourself or neglecting yourself for the sake of others,
Go for win/win or no deal.
This maintains trust balance in emotional bank account.
And both sides will be satisfied with results.
Thus, first step towards public victory.
Habit 5: Seek first to understand then to be understood.
Here what you will be doing is learning to listen,
Listening with the purpose of understanding what someone is trying to tell,
And then answering with what you understand and not just from experience alone,
Only then you can accept the person to understand what you are trying to tell as the solution.
Diagnose before you prescribe
This is something to dig deep into the book.
Habit 6: Synergize
Cooperation and trust makes up everything in any relationship,
Synergy is finding similar interests and then working according to them,
Accepting and valuing the differences.
A good example might be, you cannot expect a duck to run as well as a squirrel.
Up to habit 6 we learn about public victory and now it’s time for renewal in habit 7.
Habit 7: Sharpen the saw
This is all about taking care of yourself.
Renewing yourself, mentally, physically, spiritually and socially.
Just like a sharpened saw, which cuts trees faster and better.
Working in an upward spiral. Learn commit and do.
And thus here ends our book.
Find this book on the following links,
Read more of this on The Caffables Instagram page.
Want to see more posts like this? click here
