The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

Things I want to remember from the video and reading this week:

“The 7 Habits provide an incremental, sequential, integrated approach to the development of personal effectiveness moving us progressively from dependence (on others) to independence (taking care of ourselves) to interdependence (looking after others and

combining strengths to multiply our individual effectiveness).

“The first three habits are the basis for private victories in which we develop the fiber of our own character traits.  The second three habits are for public victories, those situations where we work with other people [public victory].  The final habit improves the effectiveness of our lives in all areas.  The 7 Habits give the ability to work from the inside out to build character of total integrity” (Summaries.com).

Habit 1 – Be Proactive: the granddaddy of all habits.  Become self-starters. Don’t hide and watch others.  Stop and start doing what they do.  Take the lead.

Habit 2 – Begin with the End in Mind: Picture yourself in the “end zone” see afar off and visualize what you want.  Daily activity, weekly quest, monthly goal.  Mindset of what victory is and how it will feel and/or taste.

Habit 3 – Put First Things First: once the goal line is established and the score determined, come back to the present and make the daily step by step plan to reach the goal.

Habit 4 – Think Win/Win: all highly effective people had the attitude of winning, but not at the expense of others…even our competitors.

Habit 5 – Seek First to Understand, then to be Understood: empathetic listening.  Difficult to think win/win without knowing what winning means to our partner, then establish how we will also win.

Habit 6 – Synergize: when everyone on the team wants everyone to win, and they have listened to what that means to others, then they can combine and synergize with each other.

Habit 7 – Sharpen the Saw: prepare to face the world.

Private victory precedes public victory.

Trust is key to this formula, of ourselves and amongst our peers and associates.

Ralph Waldo Emerson, ““That which we persist in doing becomes easier - not that the nature of the task has changed, but our ability to do has increased.”