The 7 Habits

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The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
Courtesy : Major-General Brajesh

The Principles established in Stephen R. Covey’s book are supposed to help a person achieve true interdependent "effectiveness". Covey argues this is achieved by aligning oneself to what he calls "true north"—principles of a character ethic that, unlike values, he believes to be universal and timeless. The book presents the principles in four sections.

Paradigms and Principles. Here, Covey introduces the basic foundation for the creation of the habits.

Private Victory. Here, Covey introduces the first three habits intended to take a person from dependence to independence, or one's ability to be self-reliant. You must be able to win your private victories before you can start on your public victories. If you start to win your public victories first, how can you feel good about yourself and still work on habits...

Public Victory. Here, Covey introduces habits four through six which are intended to lead to interdependence, the ability to align one's needs and desires with those of other people and create effective relationships.

Renewal. Here, Covey introduces the final habit which directs the reader to begin a process of self-improvement.
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1. Be Proactive - Principles of Personal Vision
The word proactive means that we are responsible for our own lives. Our behavior is a function of our decisions, not our conditions. We can subordinate feelings to values. We have the initiative and the responsibility to make things happen. Highly proactive people recognize that responsibility. The do not blame circumstances, conditions, or social conditioning for their behavior. Their behavior is a product of their own conscious choice, based on values, rather than a product of their conditions, based on feeling. Proactive people are still influenced by external stimuli but their response, conscious or unconscious, is a value based choice or response.
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2. Begin with the end in mind - Principles of Personal Leadership
Begin today with the image, picture, or paradigm of the end of your life as your frame of reference of the criterion by which everything else is examined. Each part of your life—today’s behavior, tomorrow’s behavior, next week’s behavior, next month’s behavior—can be examined in the context of the whole, of what really matters most to you. By keeping that end clearly in mind, you can make certain that whatever you do on any particular day does not violate the criteria you have defined as supremely important, and that each day of your life contributes in a meaningful way to the vision you have of your life as a whole. To begin with the end in mind means to start with a clear understanding of your destination. It means to know where you’re going so that you better understand where you are now and so that the steps you take are always in the right direction.
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3. Put First Things First - Principles of Personal Management
Habit 1 says that you are the programmer. Habit 2 says to write the program. Habit 3 says to run the program. Living it is primarily a function of our independent will, our self-discipline, our integrity, and commitment—not to short-term goals and schedules or to the impulse of the moment, but to the correct principles and our own deepest values, which give meaning and context to our goals, our schedules, and our lives. Organize and execute around priorities.
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4. Think Win/Win - Principles of Interpersonal Leadership
Win/Win is a frame of mind and heart that constantly seeks mutual benefit in all human interactions. Win/Win means that agreements or solutions are mutually beneficial, mutually satisfying. With a Win/Win solution all parties feel good about the decision and feel committed to the action plan. Win/Win is a belief in a Third Alternative. It’s not your way or my way; it’s a better way. And if a solution can’t be found to benefit both parties they agree to disagree agreeably—No Deal. Anything less than Win/Win in and interdependent reality is a poor second best that will have impact in the long-term relationship. The cost of that impact needs to be carefully considered. If you can’t reach a true Win/Win, you’re very often better off to go for No Deal.
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5. Seek 1st to Understand, Then to Be Understood - Principles of Empathy
Listening with the intent to understand is called empathic listening. Empathic listening gets inside another person’s frame of reference. You look out through it, you see the world the way they see the world, you understand their paradigm, you understand how they feel. Empathy is not sympathy. Empathic listening involves much more than registering, reflecting, or even understanding the words that are said. You aren’t just listening with your ears, but also with you eyes and your heart. Empathic listening is so powerful because it gives you accurate data to work with. When you present your own ideas be clear, specific, visual, and most important, contextual—in the context of a deep understanding of the other person’s paradigms and concerns. You will significantly increase the credibility of your ideas. What you’re presenting may even be different form what you had originally thought because in you effort to understand, you learned.
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6. Synergize - Principles of Creative Cooperation
Synergy is the essence of principle-centered leadership. It catalyzes, unifies, and unleashes the greatest power within people. Simply defined, it meant that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Without doubt, you have to leave the comfort zone of base camp and confront an entirely new and unknown wilderness. You become a trailblazer, a pathfinder. You open new possibilities, new territories, new continents, so that others can follow. The essence of synergy is to value differences—to respect them, to build on strengths, to compensate for weaknesses.
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7. Sharpen the Saw - Principles of Balanced Self-Renewal
Habit 7 is preserving and enhancing the greatest asset you have—you. It’s renewing the four dimensions of your nature—physical, spiritual, mental, and social/emotional. Express all 4 motivations. Exercise all four dimensions of our nature regularly and consistently in wise and balanced ways. This is the single most powerful investment we can ever make in life—the investment in ourselves. We are the instruments of our own performance, we need to recognize the importance of taking time to regularly sharpen the saw in all four ways.
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