The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, written by Stephen R. Covey in 1989, is a book that examines 7 habits that should be followed in order for a person to become highly effective in what they do, whether at work, at home, or at play. By breaking down the principles of fairness, integrity, and honesty, this book aims to help people find the success they are looking for by practicing 7 habits in their everyday life.

A First Look: What is a Habit?
According to Covey, a habit is the intersection of knowledge, skill, and desire. Knowledge is the ability to know what needs to happen, skill is the ability to do what needs to happen, and desire is the motivation to do what needs to be done, and without all three a habit cannot be formed. Simply put, a habit is knowing what to do and why (knowledge), how to do it (skill), and wanting to do it (desire). A habit cannot be formed if you do not know how to form it, or if you have no desire or motivation to form a new habit, which is why all three pieces are important in building a habit. The habits that Covey provides are meant to give you the knowledge and skill to create new habits and change your life, but you have to provide the desire to do so.

Why Do the 7 Habits Matter?
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People moves away from time-management as a system, and instead focuses on changing the behaviors of a person in order to help them succeed and find meaning in life. The first step is to look at how you view your life, and prepare for a paradigm shift. Covey believes that stress and the hassled feeling that people get when they have too much to do and not enough time can be eliminated by approaching the issues at hand not only from a new angle, but from a new viewpoint. Instead of approaching problems from the personality ethic standpoint of "if I take care of these problems, my friends/family/coworkers will like me more", Covey says the more powerful and effective approach is to look at the challenges from the character ethic standpoint, or the standpoint of "I will face and overcome these challenges because I have integrity/courage/humility". In other words, what we are at the core is more universally translated than what we say or do, and by building up the foundation of character ethics to stand on, the personality ethics that are important (like communication and socialization) will follow to show a more complete picture of ourselves. The personality ethic standpoint alone shows a full dependence on other people, while the character ethic standpoint leans towards independence instead. To help with this paradigm shift, Covey broke the habits down into 3 sections: The Private Victory of Independence, the Public Victory of Interdependence, and The Art of Continuous Improvements.

Just to be Clear, What is a Paradigm?
According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, a paradigm is either: "an example or pattern, an example of a conjugation or declension showing a word in all its inflectional forms, or a philosophical and theoretical framework of a scientific school or discipline within which theories, laws, and generalizations and the experiments performed in support of them are formulated, with a very broad definition being a philosophical or theoretical framework of any kind". However, this doesn't necessarily clear up what type of paradigm Covey is talking about. In this case, Covey sees a paradigm as a road map to where a person wants to go in life. This is why the character ethic standpoint is so important. If the underlying character values do not match where you want to go in life, it is like trying to drive through Los Angeles with a road map from New York - you'll never get anywhere even if you use the personality ethics of thinking positive and keeping a good altitude in life. Your underlying beliefs, what makes up your moral and ethical character, is your paradigm, and you may have many different paradigms to follow, just like each city has many different maps that can be followed. The 7 Habits will help you change your paradigm, or update your road map, so that you can get to where you want to go in life.

The 7 Habits - A Step by Step Guide to Shifting the Paradigm
The first step towards becoming more effective, and therefore more successful, is to realize that your perception of the world has to change. If you keep taking the same actions again and again, why would the results be any different than they were the last time you took that action? Therefore, a shift in your beliefs and your perception are needed to start the journey. The first three habits help with this shift in focus by presenting new ideas to help you change your mindset, and once they are mastered you will have reached the step of Private Victory, or overcoming the challenge of changing how you see yourself.

Habit 1: Be Proactive
The normal approach to making decisions and handling problems is the reactive approach, meaning the issue shows up and then you react and make a decision without thinking, and then justify it later. For instance, if you become short-tempered, you might say it's genetic or runs in the family, which justifies your anger for the moment by taking the response out of your control. Being proactive means recognizing that you have a consciousness, a free will, and the freedom to choose how you are going to respond to a situation instead of just reacting. Being proactive means taking responsibility for your life, holding yourself accountable for your decisions instead of blaming genetics, psychological disorders, or environmental factors. This step will eventually allow you to see, and say, "I am the person I am today because of the decisions and choices I made yesterday". There are four steps to being proactive: Take the initiative, decide to act or be acted upon, listen to the language, and focus on the circle of influence instead of the circle of concern.

Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind
introduction to the second habit here.

Habit 3: Put First Things First
Third Habit Introduction

Public Victory: Becoming Interdependent
The difference between the private and public victory, and between independence and interdependence

The Emotional Bank Account
A key concept to be explored before habit 4

Habit 4: Think Win-Win
Introduction to habit 4

Habit 5: Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood
Introduction to habit 5

Habit 6: Synergize
Introduction to habit 6

Renewal: The Art of Continuous Improvements
What Renewal means and why it is important

Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw
Introduction to habit 7

The Balancing Act: Physical, Mental, Social, and Spiritual Renewal

The 8th Habit: Find Your Voice and Inspire Others to Find Theirs
Introduction to habit 8

Everyday Greatness: Inspiration for a Meaningful Life
Everyday Greatness was written by Stephen R Covey and compiled by David K Hatch, with the first print being in 2006. The book uses stories taken from various editions of Reader's Digest to look at the 7 habits for a meaningful life, and the pillars that support this meaning.

Searching for Meaning
Within each person there is a need, or a longing, for meaning and to be seen as having value and worth. This search for purpose is what influences people to make choices that will allow them to get the most joy and satisfaction from life. However, the world seems to push for people to make choices that in the long run will have little value or meaning, but might look attractive in the short-run. Instead, Covey says to make contributions to the community, give to charity, and pay attention to the needs of others in order to make high value contributions that will help life gain meaning.