Summary of the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People By S. Covey

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SUMMARY OF THE 7 HABITS OF HIGHLY EFFECTIVE PEOPLE By Stephen R. Covey
Now, I would like to say firstly that this book is written on Covey's belief that the way we see the world is entirely based on our own perceptions, on the way we see things. In order to change a given situation we must change ourselves and in order to change ourselves, we must be able to change our perceptions.
Stephen R. Covey is a writer who explained many words, sentences and phrases in a very diplomatic way, taking us through the 4 parts, each containing habits of highly effective people.

The first exciting part of this book is the part he called "Inside-out" where he explained and made mention of things like "Effectiveness": as the balance of obtaining desirable results with caring for that which produces those results. Covey argues against what he calls "the personality ethic" that he sees as prevalent in many modern self-help books.

Character Ethic taught that there are basic principles of effective living and that people can only experience true success and enduring happiness as they learn and integrate these principles into their basic character.

Primary and Secondary greatness: he made mention of how we have forgotten the need to sow honesty into life by selling only for secondary greatness instead of the primary greatness that yields success and I quote "if there's little or no trust, there's no foundation for permanent success". Only primary goodness gives life the good technique.

The power of paradigm: Now here Covey explained paradigm as the way we "see" the world - not in terms of our visual sense of sight, but in terms of perceiving, understanding and interpreting.

Seeing and Being: This paragraph goes to say that we can't go very far to change our seeing without simultaneously changing our being, and vice versa.

And lastly, inside - out: he gave the meaning stating that one must first with self to change the inner part of one's self; that we should firstly approach private victories before public ones.

The Seven Habits in Overview

Habits are things we repeatedly do, with honesty and excellence. It comes as the intersection of knowledge (what to, why to), skill (How to) and desire (want to). The first three habits are about being effective as an individual: Knowing where to go in life, figuring out how to get there and working towards it and focusing on things that help you get there. ...