How to be Highly Effective ?

The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People

This was first published in 1989, as a self-help book written by Stephen R. Covey. It has sold over 15 million copies in 38 languages since first publication. Covey presents an approach to being effective in attaining goals by aligning oneself to what he calls "true north" principles of a character ethic that he presents as universal and timeless.

The Seven Habits - An Overview

Our character is a collection of our habits, and habits have a powerful role in our lives. Habits consist of knowledge, skill, and desire. Knowledge allows us to know what to do, skill gives us the ability to know how to do it, and desire is the motivation to do it.

The Seven Habits move us through the following stages:

  Dependence: the paradigm under which we are born, relying upon others to take

  care of us.

  Independence: the paradigm under which we can make our own decisions and take

  care of ourselves.

  Interdependence: the paradigm under which we cooperate to achieve something

  that cannot be achieved independently.

The Seven Habits - Summary

Habit 1: Be Proactive

Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind

Habit 3: Put First Things First

Habit 4: Think Win-Win

Habit 5: Seek first to understand, then to be understood

Habit 6: Synergize

Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw

Keep tuned in for elaborations on each in coming days!