A Must Read book....

I read this 2 years ago when I was in 3rd year High school. The habits that are suggested in the book turned my life around from a C+ student to an A+ student. Now, I am in College and the habits that I have picked up from this book are still with me to this day; I give credit to them for many of my achievements.

I would recommend this to anyone, from High school students to working professionals.

good book with examples of practical applications of the 7 habits of successful life.

I usually don't take more than two weeks two finish a book even I sometimes don't read books from cover to cover. This book is exceptional, I needed to take sometimes in the middle of reading to visualize the insights. I Was also expecting that this book would consist of 7 instant ways to live a life. Instead, it provides deep and fundamental principle to life in the circle of influence guided by the most important intrisic value called integrity. Stephen R. Covey have also manage to interpret very well the book of "Man's Search for Meaning-1946" written by Viktor Frankl chronicling his experiences as an Auschwitz concentration camp inmate during World War II.

An exceptional book. It's an ultimate life manual for building interdependent relationships.
It popularizes the idea that "Private Victory" precedes the "Public Victory".

Review from book:
Whew - I read this again over months - bouncing between the book & workbook. I highly recommend it. Generally, I prefer to read a book straight through, but there's something to be said for focusing on one book every week for half a year - it's been top of mind for the entire time, and I think I'm implementing it even better.

Review for the workbook:
This is actually my second time with the workbook - the first time I quit it after a third. It was cool to use a different pen & see how my answers and situation had changed over the years. I'll hang onto this to use again. The workbook really forces you to slow down and work on one thing at a time, sometimes very slowly - but again, that has helped me implement more. I can see doing this again in 5 years.

Very good book. This book can change our mindset.

There are 7 principles of habit :
1. Principles of Personal Vision
2. Principles of Personal Leadership
3. Principles of Personal Management
4. Principles of Interpersonal Leadership
5. Principles of Empathic Communication
6. Principles of Creative Cooperation
7. Principles of Balanced Self-Renewal

These principles have to be followed in order, because it is linked with each other and has dependencies, so we can't just jump to the last principle.

First three principles tells us how to self handle, like be proactive not reactive, it shows us the comparisons too between being proactive and being reactive. Proactive people can control their own feelings. It also tells us about how to set goals, begins with the end in mind and starts with clear destination, so we can know if we are still on the right tracks.

We need to have something to be worried, and handle with inside out. We should not delay what we need to do, always do it now.

In Personal Management, it tells us how to set first things first. There are 4 quadrants : Quadrant 1 Urgent and Important, Quadrant 2 Important but not Urgent, Quadrant 3 Urgent but not Important, Quadrant 4 not Urgent and not Important. Things on Quadrant 4 can be eliminated, things on Quadrant 2 can be suppress if we are proactive and set things up first before it is moved to Quadrant 1, so things on Quadrant 1 can't be neglected and must be do now.

The second three principles tells us how to handle our relations with other people, we have to think win-win so both people are mutually benefited and satisfied, create culture of responsibility, and gain trust.

The book tells us how to make a punishment too as a contrary of reward, in terms of Financial, Physic, Opportunity, and Responsibility.

If we want to be understood, we need to understand first. The highest level of understanding is Emphatic Listening, it has drawback though as we open up ourself to vulnerability on being influenced, so we need to be careful to use Emphatic Listening. After we gain the trust, we can reach the state of synergy.

The Last Principle is my most favourite principle, as it improves us to be better and better. There are 4 dimensions that need to be fulfilled to get motivation on best condition : Physical, Spiritual, Mental, Social Emotion. We have to be discipline on workout and pause, and have extra effort little by little consistently to improve without injury or something we don't like to get.

Lastly, we need to repeat the steps as they are linked with each other.

This is a very good book for people who are facing obstacles or blockages in life. 7 Habits provided spot on real life examples of what are the challenges, how it happened, why it happened, and ways on how to tackle them.

A great book that describes the habits to be build a happy, meaningful and successful life.

Here are my notes from the book:


Concepts:

The Emotional Bank Account is a metaphor that Covey uses to describe the amount of trust that has been built up in a relationship. It's a measure of how safe you feel with another person.


Deposits: Positive actions that build trust and improve relationships. 

Withdrawals: Negative actions that reduce trust and harm relationships. 


Paradigms are the mental maps that shape our interpretations and understanding of the world. They are the lenses through which we perceive everything around us. Covey emphasizes the importance of shifting our paradigms to achieve true personal and professional effectiveness.


Notes from each chapter:

Habit 1 - Be Proactive

Take full ownership of the things of life and control your life.


Habit 2 - Begin with the end in mind

Make clear goals and plan, so you where you are going.


Habit 3 - Put first things first

Make sure that your activities are organized on a hierarchy based by the urgency and importance and start by getting done the things at the top.


Habit 4 - Don't settle for anything less than a win/win

In order to find these opportunities we need to have an abudance mindset (embracing risk, not thinking negatively, collaborative, generous, etc. ) and have the discipline to not settle for anything less than a win/win situation. Also while building  a win/win situation we should also have in mind the emotional bank.


Habit 5 - Seek first to understand then be understood

We should listen to understand the other person, not just wait for us to reply. Basically, we should actually be interested in the other person, not just acting like it.


Habit 6 - Synergize

When we find ourselves in situations of conflinct always try to find a win/win without compromising by trying to understand others, considering the emotional banks and understanding the paradigms of others.


Habit 7 - Sharpen the Saw

Always make sure you improve & renewal our life & habits.

The 4 major areas of human life to sharpen:

- Physical Renewal
- Mental Renewal
- Social & Emotional Renewal
- Spiritual Renewal

I read "7 Habits" in 2016, did the workbook in 2017. Loved the book, the workbook not so much. Not so bad, really, but, well, it's a workbook.

It’s a book that everyone should read at least five times in his life. The conception of circle of concern and circle of influence that impress me deeply. When I wanna to play Games and glance news on smartphone and I will ask myself wether it’s in my circle of influence l. If it’s not, why not shut off the computer or put down my phone and get down to something that I can really need to do.

Books like Stephen Covey's 7 Habits of Highly Effective People Personal Workbook and its counterpart The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People sell for the same basic reason cookbooks or diet and exercise books do: People are eager to improve their lives. I've met several people who feel that self-improvement books are hogwash and say they don't need a book to give them motivation to do something. That's fine, and if you're one of those people, then this book isn't for you. However, if you do happen to struggle with improving certain aspects of your life, you might want to read this. And if you do read it and don't like it, what did you lose, really, except the bit of time you spent reading and the cost of the book?

Essentially, this book is a kind of cognitive therapy. Cognitive therapy is a mode of therapy whose sole aim is to get a person to improve his or her stinkin' thinkin'. Any person can do that with a little reorientation regarding what's important to them, especially as these personal values turn into a real action plan. In other words, the aim is to get a person to discover what he or she values the most and then after landing on that then put those values into action in daily life, constantly renewing what was committed to. I'll state this a bit more concretely in a moment, but first let's see what Covey's actual recommendations are.

The first point is that you have the choice to how you would like to respond to any event. You can choose to be angry, choose to be sad, choose to be happy, puzzled, etc., but the ultimate realization here is that between that moment when an external event occurs and your response to that external event, you can choose to respond any way you want. Now, it's true, our default settings are sometimes overwhelming, and sometimes naturally we all feel like we can't choose how to respond to a situation because a feeling overwhelms us. But any time before you find yourselves beginning to act out one of these default responses, ask yourself if this is the only way you can respond to it and if it is the best way.

Points two and three involving keeping your endgame in mind when making plans and prioritizing activities that get you closer to your endgame. A person playing chess wants to checkmate the king. Presumably, a person doing exercise wants to get healthier (or lose weight or feel better, etc.). Think about the ends you want to put your activities toward and realize that if you are getting too concerned in life now with matters that don't matter, that is, that don't match the end-states you want to reach, then maybe you should reconsider the activities you're engaging in now to better reach those end-goals. There should be constant movement toward those ends and less time spent with distracting matters. This step, by the way, involves a lot of discernment on someone's part to find out what he or she really wants to achieve here, and, yes, is very difficult.

Fourth point: When you want to do anything together with anybody, ever, work hard to make the situation a Win-Win situation, and if you can't arrive at a Win-Win situation, then it just must be a No-Deal situation. Any given solution must be good for both parties and if it isn't then it really shouldn't be done. If an agreement is made that's not Win-Win, then one party will feel like he or she is getting the bad end of the stick.

The fifth point is more difficult than it seems, and that is engage in empathic communication with other people. This means listen first before you yourself want to be understand. To make sure you're listening well, track the other person's feelings about something and be able to rephrase what that person's concerns are as though they were your own. If you do this, then you will truly be able to understand another person better.

The sixth point is about creative cooperation, which translates to engaging in activities with other people that will not only be mutually beneficial but will arrive at a result that no one could have done alone. This could be all sorts of things: getting along well with your significant other to make the quality of both your lives better, collaborating with someone at work to do a better job on something, and those kinds of things. As for other points, this is more difficult than one would think when trying to actually make the world better for two or more people. But when implemented, it really strikes at the heart of a lot of problems, which is not making the world better by you being in it; the world should be a better place before of people.

The last and final point is balanced renewal regarding spiritual, mental, social, and emotional priorities. Everyone should be doing something every day to make these priorities a way of life, and that involves the real grind of life. With this last point, I'll be able to give you a practical example of all the points through sharing something personal. Here goes.

Because I realize I can choose what to be concerned about (point 1), I check my anger and frustration and negative emotions. By doing so, I can spend more of my time and energy thinking about what I want to accomplish (2), which is going back to school to pursue clinical psychology with the hopes of one day being a working therapist. So now I prioritize (3) what I need to do to accomplish that goal, namely by taking classes and reading about the field and workplace of clinical psychologists. I plan to move back to the U.S. with my significant other, and we both talked about and understand that to make our relationship work we will need to be together there, and she wants to be in the U.S. and I want her to be there while I pursue my studies (4). I have asked her about her concerns (5) and must take them into account in my decision making. We plan to work together (6) while we are there professionally to have dual incomes, and I and she will also continue to do what we will do to make ourselves happier and healthier people (the final point 7).

This is way too long and all just to say I'd recommend this book, and the counterpart The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. It's really helped me to be less of a lazy slub and more of a productive, thoughtful person. I hope it would help some of you too.