stephen covey 7 habits of successful people

Stephen covey 7 habits of successful people how to#
Stephen covey 7 habits of successful people series#

By setting small goals and sticking to them, you gradually increase your integrity, which increases your ability to take responsibility for your life. This includes a commitment to self-improvement and, by extension, personal growth. The clearest manifestation of proactivity can be seen in your ability to stick to the commitments you make to yourself and to others. This, in turn, empowers other forces to perpetually control them. They amass negative energy by blaming external factors for their feelings of victimization. Proactive individuals focus their efforts on the things they can change, whereas reactive people focus their efforts on the areas of their lives in which they have no control. What matters most is how you respond to these experiences. While external factors have the ability to cause pain, your inner character doesn’t need to be damaged. Where reactive people are driven by feelings, proactive people are driven by values. Consequently, you don’t blame your behavior on external factors such as circumstances, but own it as part of a conscious choice based on your values. More than just taking the initiative, being proactive means taking responsibility for your life. The first and most fundamental habit of an effective person is to be proactive.

Stephen covey 7 habits of successful people how to#

This 7 Habits of Highly Effective People book summary will look at each of these habits and show you how to put them into action to become more successful in whatever you want to achieve.

Seek to understand first, before making yourself understood.

To attain this level of interdependence, you must cultivate each of the seven habits laid out in the book. It precludes the knowledge that you are an independent being, but that working with others will produce greater results than working on your own. Interdependence is a more mature, advanced concept. While society and most of the self-help books on the market champion independence as the highest achievement, Covey argues that it’s interdependence that yields the greatest results. The seven habits in this book will help you move from a state of dependence, to independence, and finally to interdependence. Rather than focusing on altering the outward manifestations of your behavior and attitudes, it aims to adapt your inner core, character, and motives. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People puts forward a principle-centered approach to both personal and interpersonal effectiveness. What Are the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People?Ĭovey’s seven habits are composed of the primary principles of character upon which happiness and success are based. This is the foundation of his bestselling book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. When you value the correct principles, you see reality as it truly is. Covey claims that these principles are self-evident and endure in most religious, social, and ethical systems.

Stephen covey 7 habits of successful people series#

The “Character Ethic” is based upon a series of principles.

What we are says far more than what we say or do. Yet, these were just shallow, quick successes, overlooking the deeper principles of life.Ĭovey argues it’s your character that needs to be cultivated to achieve sustainable success, not your personality. However, after the war, there was a shift to what Covey refers to as the “Personality Ethic.” Here, success was attributed as a function of personality, public image, behaviors, and skills. This included characteristics such as humility, fidelity, integrity, courage, and justice. It was here that he noticed a stark historical contrast between two types of success.īefore the First World War, success was attributed to ethics of character. In an attempt to understand why, he read several self-improvement, self-help, and popular psychology books written over the past 200 years. During his 25 years of working with successful individuals in business, universities, and relationship settings, Stephen Covey discovered that high-achievers were often plagued with a sense of emptiness.