First Things First

by Stephen R. Covey

While we do control our choice of action, we cannot control the consequences of our choices. Universal laws or principles do. Thus, we are not in control of our lives; principles are.

If there is one message to glean from this wisdom, it is that a meaningful life is not a matter of speed or efficiency. It’s much more a matter of what you do and why you do it, than how fast you get it done.

the consequences of “urgency addiction.”

how to set and achieve principle-based goals that create quality of life results.

the difference between transactional and transformational interactions with others.

For many of us, there’s a gap between the compass and the clock— between what’s deeply important to us and the way we spend our time.

More than doing things right, it’s focused on doing the right things.

But for most of us, the issue is not between the “good” and the “bad,” but between the “good” and the “best.” So often, the enemy of the best is the good.

mistake he made was in not doing enough team building, enough explaining, enough educating about what he was trying to accomplish.

The clock represents our commitments, appointments, schedules, goals, activities—what we do with, and how we manage our time. The compass represents

our vision, values, principles, mission, conscience, direction—what we feel is important and how we lead our lives.

The struggle comes when we sense a gap between the clock and the compass—when what we do doesn’t contribute to wha...

environmentally scripted “people pleasers” often overcommit and overwork out of fear of rejection and shame.

The problem wasn’t how much they were getting done. It was where they were trying to go, and what they were trying to accomplish.

Most of us feel it would be great to be in “control” of our lives. But the fact is, we’re not in control; principles are. We can control our choices, but we can’t control the consequences of those choices.

But the underlying assumption is that “more” and “faster” are better. Is that necessarily true? There’s a vital difference between efficiency and effectiveness.

Values. To value something is to esteem it to be of worth.

Just because we value something does not necessarily mean it will create quality-of-life results. When what we value is in opposition to the natural laws that govern peace of mind and quality of life, we base our lives on illusion and set ourselves up for failure.

fulcrum”

But there are entire cultures in the world that approach life from a kairos—an “appropriate time” or “quality time”—paradigm. Time is something to be experienced. It’s exponential, existential. The essence of kairos time is how much value you get out of it rather than how much chronos time you put into it.

The wisdom literature of centuries, on the other hand, validates the supreme importance of developing character as well as competence in creating quality-of-life results.

Management works within the paradigm. Leadership creates new paradigms.

Fundamental to putting first things first in our lives is leadership before management: “Am I doing the right things?” before “Am I doing things right?”