Book Review: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey

Love love love this book!! This will be a repeat read for sure and I give it a 10/10. This is a book that everyone should read no matter what kind of career or life situation. It teaches the reader great lessons that can be applied to multiple facets of life. I can't wait to go back through it again because there is so much information that I definitely missed something. I will do my best to draw some of the main points out of the book, but I may have to do another post about it when I go through it a second time.

To start, the 7 habits are the following:

Private Victory

1) Be Proactive

2) Begin with the End in mind

3) Put First things First

Public Victory

4) Think Win/ Win

5) Seek first to Understand, Then to be Understood

6) Synergize

Renewal

7) Sharpen the Saw

One of the main themes for the book is that in order to be a successful person, one needs to build their life around never-changing principles. These principles will be a guidebook for how to make decisions and handle situations. For example, a principle I strive for is integrity. To me, integrity is keeping commitments to myself and others. So, if the opportunity came about where I had to choose between playing video games or reading 10 pages of a new book (which is a goal of mine); then, I can think and realize that if I want to practice integrity, I should read the pages and keep the commitment I made to myself.

The first 3 habits focus on developing the self. It is imperative that your character is built on solid foundations and you are happy with your inner life, before trying to improve the public life.

The first habit, "Be Proactive," emphasizes the importance of taking responsibility for current circumstances. It is our own responsibility as the reader to initiate the change we wish to see in our own lives. We must realize that nothing will change unless we do, so don't wait around for life to get better! Get active and change for the good.

The section that discusses the second habit, "Begin with the End in mind," starts with the author asking the reader to picture their own funeral. What are people saying about you? Who you are? How you lived? This exercise is to get the reader thinking about how they want to be remembered and the type of life they want to lead. Once they have this in mind, it should be reverse engineered and then implemented into daily life. The author asks us to picture how 4 different people would talk about us. The 4 people would be one from work, family, friends, and church/ organization. For example, if you want to be known as a hard working, detail-oriented person at work, then you should start embodying those characteristics today before it is too late.

The third habit, "Put First things First," can be summarized by this phrase: "don't prioritize what's on your schedule, but schedule your priorities." This section talks about the importance of certain activities and how busyness does not equal productiveness. It is important to take time and do character building things before busy work. An example would be to take time to exercise every morning before starting work. That way you know your health is taking care of before the craziness of the day begins.

Now moving to public victories. The main theme of public victories is to build the emotional bank account with other people. There are 6 major ways to build this "bank account":

1) Understand the individual

2) Attend to the little things

3) Keep commitments

4) Clarify expectations

5) Show personal integrity

6) Apologize sincerely when making a withdrawal

By building the emotional bank account of others, the relationship between those people will grow and flourish.

Habit 4, "Think Win/ Win," goes into detail about how there is always a third alternative to settling a matter where both parties will walk away satisfied. This does not mean compromising - compromising is described as a low level win/ win but is not the goal. The goal is to brainstorm a scenario where both parties are happy with the outcome and then acting upon it. The author goes into detail on the different types of outcomes and how to spot them.

The fifth habit is regarded as the hardest by the author and it is "First seek to Understand, Then to be Understood." The reason this habit is so difficult is because people have a hard time being patient and listening to understand instead of listening to respond. This habit emphasizes the importance of walking in the other persons' shoes and trying to see the situation from their point of view. Once you have done that, then trying to explain your point of view in a way that everyone is on the same playing field. After this, it is up to the people involved to come up with a Win/ Win situation or to just have a better understanding of the individual after the conversation.

The last public victory habit is, "Synergize." This habit can be summarized by the phrase "the whole is greater than the sum of its parts." The author discusses how working together as a cohesive unit to solve problems improves the outcome as well as the relationships within the group.

The final habit is "Sharpen the Saw." This habit fits under the category of "Renewal." Rightfully so, this habit gets its own category because (I believe) it is the most important habit for becoming a more effective person over one's lifetime. This habit means that a person needs to continually improve themselves. There are four main areas of the self that need to be constantly watched over and worked on. These areas are physical, mental, social/ emotional, and spiritual. By continuing to improve these areas, a person can expect to be a better overall person than they were yesterday. You are investing in your most important asset: you. How can one expect to move forward if they are not at the top of their game? That is where sharpening the saw comes into play.

Overall, an amazing book. Like I said, I can't wait to go back through and read it again for years to come. Mr. Covey mentions in the book that this is a lifelong journey. The habits cannot be fully completed - only worked on and improved. I am looking forward to the marathon ahead.