The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

Habit 1: Be Proactive

Habit 1 is the key to unlocking all the other habits and that's why it comes first. It says, "I am the captain of my life. I can choose my attitude. I'm responsible for my own happiness or unhappiness. I am in the driver's seat of my destiny, not just a passenger.

Your life doesn't just "happen." Whether you know it or not, it is carefully designed by you. The choices, after all, are yours. You choose happiness. You choose sadness. You choose decisiveness. You choose ambivalence. You choose success. You choose failure. You choose courage. You choose fear. Just remember that every moment, every situation, provides a new choice. And in doing so, it gives you a perfect opportunity to do things differently to produce more positive results. Be Proactive is about taking responsibility for your life. You can't keep blaming everything on your parents or grandparents. Proactive people recognize that they are "response-able." They don't blame genetics, circumstances, conditions, or conditioning for their behavior.

 They know they choose their behavior. Reactive people, on the other hand, are often affected by their physical environment. They find external sources to blame for their behavior. If the weather is good, they feel good. If it isn't, it affects their attitude and performance, and they blame the weather. All of these external forces act as stimuli that we respond to. Between the stimulus and the response is your greatest power--you have the freedom to choose your response. 

Habit 2:Begin with the End in Mind 

Is based on imagination--the ability to envision in your mind what you cannot at present see with your eyes. It is based on the principle that all things are created twice. There is a mental (first) creation, and a physical (second) creation. The physical creation follows the mental, just as a building follows a blueprint. If you don't make a conscious effort to visualize who you are and what you want in life, then you empower other people and circumstances to shape you and your life by default. It's about connecting again with your own uniqueness and then defining the personal, moral, and ethical guidelines within which you can most happily express and fulfill yourself. Begin with the End in Mind means to begin each day, task, or project with a clear vision of your desired direction and destination, and then continue by flexing your proactive muscles to make things happen. 

One of the best ways to incorporate Habit 2 into your life is to develop a Personal Mission Statement. It focuses on what you want to be and do. It is your plan for success. It reaffirms who you are, puts your goals in focus, and moves your ideas into the real world. Your mission statement makes you the leader of your own life. You create your own destiny and secure the future you envision.

Habit 3: Put First Things First

To live a more balanced existence, you have to recognize that not doing everything that comes along is okay. There's no need to overextend yourself. All it takes is realizing that it's all right to say no when necessary and then focus on your highest priorities.

"You're in charge. You're the creator." Being proactive is about choice. Is the first, or mental, creation. Beginning with the End in Mind is about vision.  Is the second creation, the physical creation. This habit is where 1 and 2 come together. It happens day in and day out, moment-by-moment. It deals with many of the questions addressed in the field of time management. But that's not all it's about. Is about life management as well--your purpose, values, roles, and priorities. What are "first things?" First things are those things you, personally, find of most worth. If you put first things first, you are organizing and managing time and events according to the personal priorities you established in Habit .

Habit 4: Think Win-Win

The first three of Stephen Covey’s habits of highly effective people are personal. They’re individual. You and I can unilaterally be proactive… begin with the end in mind… and put first things first. We don’t need anyone’s permission to do these things…and equally significantly…no one else can do these things for us.

The next three habits are inter-personal. They’re about how we relate to those around us…and in certain ways they’re about how we work together.  The first of these three is Think Win-Win. Think Win-Win isn’t about being nice, nor is it a quick-fix technique. It is a character-based code for human interaction and collaboration.

Most of us learn to base our self-worth on comparisons and competition. We think about succeeding in terms of someone else failing–that is, if I win, you lose; or if you win, I lose. Life becomes a zero-sum game. There is only so much pie to go around, and if you get a big piece, there is less for me; it’s not fair, and I’m going to make sure you don’t get anymore. We all play the game, but how much fun is it really?Win-win sees life as a cooperative arena, not a competitive one. Win-win is a frame of mind and heart that constantly seeks mutual benefit in all human interactions. Win-win means agreements or solutions are mutually beneficial and satisfying. We both get to eat the pie, and it tastes pretty darn good!A person or organization that approaches conflicts with a win-win attitude possesses three vital character traits

Habit 5: Seek First to Understand, then to be Understood

Communication is the most important skill in life. You spend years learning how to read and write, and years learning how to speak. 
If you're like most people, you probably seek first to be understood; you want to get your point across. And in doing so, you may ignore the other person completely, pretend that you're listening, selectively hear only certain parts of the conversation or attentively focus on only the words being said, but miss the meaning entirely. So why does this happen? Because most people listen with the intent to reply, not to understand. You listen to yourself as you prepare in your mind what you are going to say, the questions you are going to ask, etc. You filter everything you hear through your life experiences, your frame of reference. You check what you hear against your autobiography and see how it measures up. And consequently, you decide prematurely what the other person means before he/she finishes communicating.  I know just how you feel. I felt the same way." "I had that same thing happen to me." 

"Let me tell you what I did in a similar situation. I worked at a large software company and one night I came home and vented to my husband about issues I had with my new boss. I felt that my new boss was a bad manager, was making bad decisions, and was sending the team in the wrong direction. My husband surprised me when he asked if I’d spent time with my boss to understand all the facts. He asked me if I’d discussed my concerns with my boss, or had made any attempt at all to understand the reasons behind the decisions I was so concerned about. He asked me if I’d listened to and heard my boss. It is in my husband’s Austrian nature to be direct, but his questions were spot on and exactly what I needed to hear.

Habit 6:  Synergize

Synergize is the habit of creative cooperation. It is teamwork, open-mindedness, and the adventure of finding new solutions to old problems. But it doesn't just happen on its own. It's a process, and through that process, people bring all their personal experience and expertise to the table.To put it simply, synergy means "two heads are better than one." Synergize is the habit of creative cooperation. It is teamwork, open-mindedness, and the adventure of finding new solutions to old problems. But it doesn't just happen on its own. It's a process, and through that process, people bring all their personal experience and expertise to the table. Together, they can produce far better results that they could individually. Synergy lets us discover jointly things we are much less likely to discover by ourselves. It is the idea that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. One plus one equals three, or six, or sixty--you name it. 

Habit 7:  Sharpen the Saw

Sharpen the Saw means preserving and enhancing the greatest asset you have--you. It means having a balanced program for self-renewal in the four areas of your life: physical, social/emotional, mental, and spiritual. Here are some examples of activities:
As you renew yourself in each of the four areas, you create growth and change in your life. Sharpen the Saw keeps you fresh so you can continue to practice the other six habits. You increase your capacity to produce and handle the challenges around you. Without this renewal, the body becomes weak, the mind mechanical, the emotions raw, the spirit insensitive, and the person selfish. Not a pretty picture, is it? 
Feeling good doesn't just happen. Living a life in balance means taking the necessary time to renew yourself. It's all up to you. You can renew yourself through relaxation. Or you can totally burn yourself out by overdoing everything. You can pamper yourself mentally and spiritually. Or you can go through life oblivious to your well-being. You can experience vibrant energy. Or you can procrastinate and miss out on the benefits of good health and exercise. You can revitalize yourself and face a new day in peace and harmony. Or you can wake up in the morning full of apathy because your get-up-and-go has got-up-and-gone. Just remember that every day provides a new opportunity for renewal--a new opportunity to recharge yourself instead of hitting the wall. All it takes is the desire, knowledge, and skill.

Final reflection 

Aprendi de estos 7 la manera mas entendible de las vida y en que forma devo de verla ,cada una me muestra distintas formas de como devo interactuar con la sociedad pero todad tienen algo en comun que siempre es ayudar a alguin mas por mi parte cada uno de estos puntos me dice que realice distintas cosas , como el numero 1 me pide sobre la acttividad o sicho la proactividad , el segundo es mas mentas que fisico y es dar fin al pensamiento frecuente , el tercero me pide la enfocacion a lo importante diciendo primero a lo primero que me da entender eso , el cuarto igual se trata mental al enforcarte en una victoria tu sabes que lo lograras , el quinto se refiere a entender lo que no entiendes y que te entiendan igual , el sexto se trata mas como de donde se debe ir alguien y por ultimo el septimo afila la tierra eso mas entendible en mi punto de vista es arregla lo que no esta bien o afila la tierra solamente asi dicho esto es lo que yo entendi de estos 7 puntos que la verdad espero utilizarlos en mi vida .