THE 7 HABITS OF HIGHLY EFFECTIVE PEOPLE REVIEW

7 HABITS OF HIGHLY EFFECTIVE PEOPLE

Our character, basically, is a composite of our habits. Because they are consistent, often unconscious patterns, habits constantly express our character and produce our effectiveness - or our ineffectiveness. In the words of Aristotle, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”

I identify here seven habits shared by all truly effective people. Fortunately, for those of us not born effective (no one is), these habits can be learned. Furthermore, the collective experience of the ages shows us that acquiring them will give you the character to succeed.

If there isn’t deep integrity and fundamental goodness behind what you do, the challenges of life will cause true motives to surface, and human relationship failure will replace short-term success.

Changing our habits to improve what we are can be a painful process. It must be motivated by a higher purpose, and by the willingness to subordinate what you think you want now for what you know you want later.

As you open the gates of change to give yourself new habits, be patient with yourself. This is not a quick fix. But I assure you that you will see immediate benefits. And if you see the whole picture clearly, you’ll have the perseverance to see the process to its conclusion. Have faith - it’s worth the effort. Remember what Thomas Paine said: “What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly; ‘tis dearness only which gives everything its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods.”

Acquiring the seven habits of effectiveness takes us through the stages of character development. Habits 1 through 3 make up the “private victory” - where we go from dependence to independence by taking responsibility for our own lives. Acquiring habits 4 through 6 is our “public victory”: Once independent, we learn to be interdependent, to succeed with other people. The seventh habit makes all the others possible - periodically renewing ourselves in mind body, and spirit.

HABIT ONE – BE PROACTIVE

Proactivity means that as human beings, we are responsible for our own lives. Being proactive means recognizing our responsibility to make things happen. The people who end up with the good jobs are those who seize the initiative to do whatever is necessary, consistent with correct principles, to get the job done.

“No one can whistle a symphony. It takes a whole orchestra to play it”    - H.E. Luccock  

Consider the words of Joseph Addison:

When I look upon the tombs of the great, every emotion of envy dies in me; when I read the epitaphs of the beautiful, every inordinate desire goes out; when I meet with the grief of parents upon a tombstone, my heart melts with compassion; when I see the tomb of the parents themselves, I consider the vanity of grieving for those whom we must quickly follow: when I see kings lying by those who deposed them, I consider rival wits placed side by side, or the holy men that divided the world with their contests and disputes, I reflect with sorrow and astonishment on the little competitions, factions, and debates of mankind. When I read the several dates of the tombs, of some that died yesterday, and some six hundred years ago, I consider that great Day when we shall all of us be Contemporaries, and make our appearance together.

To be continued