The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

by Stephen R. Covey

My duplicity will breed distrust, and everything I do—even using so-called good human relations techniques—will be perceived as manipulative.

“Where we stand depends on where we sit.”

While practices are situationally specific, principles are deep, fundamental truths that have universal application. They apply to individuals, to marriages, to families, to private and public organizations of every kind.

When we value correct principles, we have truth—a knowledge of things as they are.

Principles are guidelines for human conduct that are proven to have enduring, permanent value. They’re fundamental. They’re essentially

unarguable because they are s...

Admission of ignorance is often the first step in our education.

“Sow a thought, reap an action; sow an action, reap a habit; sow a habit, reap a character; sow a character, reap a destiny,”

“Lift off” takes a tremendous effort, but once we break out of the gravity pull, our freedom takes on a whole new dimension.

Genetic determinism basically says your grandparents did it to you.

Psychic determinism basically says your parents did it to you.

Environmental determinism basically says your boss is doing it to you—or your spouse, or that bratty teenager, or your economic situation, or national policies.

Between stimulus and response is our greatest power—the freedom to choose.

responsibility—“response-ability”—the ability to choose your response. Highly proactive people recognize that responsibility. They do not blame circumstances, conditions, or conditioning for their behavior.

Reactive People are often affected by the physical and social environment whereas Proactive People carry their environment with them.

Victor Frankl suggests that there are three central values in life—the experiential, or that which happens to us; the creative, or that which we bring into existence; and the attitudinal, or our response in difficult circumstances such as terminal illness.

people who end up with the good jobs are the proactive ones who are solutions to problems, not problems themselves, who seize the initiative to do whatever is necessary, consistent with correct principles, to get the job done.

The problems we face fall in one of three areas: direct control (problems involving our own behavior); indirect control (problems involving other people’s behavior); or no control (problems we can do nothing about, such as our past or situational realities).

If I say “I am responsible,” I might have to say, “I am irresponsible.”