I would like to share with you the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. I was very interested by these habits because I believe these would help me in everything I do as a person, educator and as citizen of this country. This is taken from the book of Stephen Covey. Dr. Covey is recognized as one of Time magazine's 25 most influential Americans. He has dedicated his life to demonstrating how every person can truly control their destiny with profound, yet straightforward guidance. As an internationally respected leadership authority, family expert, teacher, organizational consultant, and author, his advice has given insight to millions. His Book seven habits of highly Effective People is regarded as the number one most influential business book in the twentieth century.
Each chapter of the book is dedicated to one habit. The first three habits are designed for self mastery. The next three have something to do with interdependence which is relating towards others and the last habit relates to self-transformation. These are the 7 habits of highly effective people:
Habit 1: Be Proactive
Being proactive is taking responsibility of your choices. Life is not a coincidence rather it's carefully designed by you. Taking initiative in life by realizing your decisions (and how they align with life's principles) are the primary determining factor for effectiveness in your life. Be responsible for your choices and consider the subsequent consequences that follow. Getting things done.
Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind
Try to ask yourself what are your goals in life. What plans you would like to pursue in the future? Self-discover and clarify your deeply important character values and life goals. Envision the ideal characteristics for each of your various roles and relationships in life. It is always better to try and foresee situations. Predict outcomes and then think of worst case scenarios, will help come up with informed decisions.
Habit 3: Put First Things First
This habit looks on the life management. Planning, prioritizing, and executing your week's tasks based on importance rather than urgency. Evaluating if your efforts exemplify your desired character values, propel you towards goals, and enrich the roles and relationships elaborated in Habit 2. Prioritization is the key to the success of any business or in any walk of life. Being proactive rather than being reactive leads to success.
Habit 4: Think Win-Win
Most of us learn to base our self-worth on comparisons and competition. We think about succeeding in terms of someone else failing--that is, if I win, you lose; or if you win, I lose. Life becomes a zero-sum game. There is only so much pie to go around, and if you get a big piece, there is less for me; it's not fair, and I'm going to make sure you don't get anymore. We all play the game, but how much fun is it really?Win-win sees life as a cooperative arena, not a competitive one. Win-win is a frame of mind and heart that constantly seeks mutual benefit in all human interactions. Win-win means agreements or solutions are mutually beneficial and satisfying. We both get to eat the pie, and it tastes pretty darn good!
Genuinely striving for mutually beneficial solutions or agreements in your relationships. Valuing and respecting people by understanding a "win" for all is ultimately a better long-term resolution than if only one person in the situation had gotten his way. Everyone will feel inclusive and involved. A better environment of trust and loyalty establishes.
Habit 5: Seek First to Understand, then to be understood
Communication is the most important skill in life. You spend years learning how to read and write, and years learning how to speak. But what about listening? What training have you had that enables you to listen so you really, deeply understand another human being? Probably none, right?
Using empathetic listening to be genuinely influenced by a person, which compels them to reciprocate the listening and take an open mind to being influenced by you. This creates an atmosphere of caring, respect, and positive problem solving. This can also avoid situations where the problem does not actually exist and its just a matter of misunderstanding. It is always said that listen double to what you talk since we have 2 ears to listen and one mouth to talk.
Habit 6: Synergize
To put it simply, synergy means "two heads are better than one." Synergize is the habit of creative cooperation. It is teamwork, open-mindedness, and the adventure of finding new solutions to old problems. But it doesn't just happen on its own. It's a process, and through that process, people bring all their personal experience and expertise to the table. Together, they can produce far better results that they could individually. Synergy lets us discover jointly things we are much less likely to discover by ourselves. It is the idea that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. One plus one equals three, or six, or sixty--you name it.
Combining the strengths of people through positive teamwork, so as to achieve goals no one person could have done alone. This habit shows on how to yield the most prolific performance out of a group of people through encouraging meaningful contribution, and modeling inspirational and supportive leadership. Everyone is a master of something and not everything. Positive potentials can be put together to achieve better results.
Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw
Sharpen the Saw means preserving and enhancing the greatest asset you have--you. It means having a balanced program for self-renewal in the four areas of your life: physical, social/emotional, mental, and spiritual. Here are some examples of activities:
| Physical: | Beneficial eating, exercising, and resting |
| Social/Emotional: | Making social and meaningful connections with others |
| Mental: | Learning, reading, writing, and teaching |
| Spiritual: | Spending time in nature, expanding spiritual self through meditation, music, art, prayer, or service |
As I've learned with this habits, I have asked myself if I can do most of the habits to become better person. I doubt if I can be proactive because most of the time I am not, reactive instead. I have problem also on listening skills. I know it requires a lot of patience. Sometimes I don't know also how to prioritize things.
Well anyways, the most important thing to do is to rediscover yourself and find what are you looking for. The best thing to start is to look around you and reflect on what you have done. Learning from the past is the key on how you can move on and begin with a healthy lifestyle. The seven habits of an effective people are of great help for us to become productive, useful and better individuals. But take note, following such habits need a lot of political will. You have to be determined and be sure of what are aiming for. Of course, these aspirations will not be successful if we don't ask for God's grace and guidance.
PDIS