The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change by Stephen R. Covey

Why: I would like to learn if I have the correct map for self-improvement.
Goal: Learn to focus on improving the character and not personality.

Action: Right Habits Improve Your Characters.

3 Key Concepts

1. Character is a composite of our habits.
2. Work on 7 Habits in order: self-mastery, interdependence, renewal.
3. Inside-Out is the only Way-Out.

Summary

How to have right habits that improve our characters?

Start from inside out. Hold the right worldview or values, or virtues. This gives you the right thinking or mindset. From here, you act upon them until they become your habits. And these habits, my friend, is what defines your character.

This book teaches us how to focus on character (inside trait) over personality (surface outlook).

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.

Aristotle

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Character is a Composite of Our Habits

Sow a thought, reap an action;
Sow an action, reap a habit;
Sow a habit, reap a character;
Sow a character, reap a destiny.

The Maxim

Habit is the intersection of Knowledge, Skill, and Desire.

1. Knowledge is the theoretical paradigm, the WHAT to do, and the WHY.
2. Skill is the HOW to do.
3. Desire is the motivation. The WANT to do.

We need all three to make something a habit. Here, the key to having effective habits is to internalize principles and patterns of behavior.

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7 Habits of Highly Effective People

Self-Mastery

• Habit 1: Be proactive
  Focus on what you can control.
• Habit 2: Begin with the end in mind
  Have a clear map in your mind, where do you want to go?
• Habit 3: Put first thing first
  Discipline yourself to finish what matters.

Interdependence

• Habit 4: Think win-win
  Have an abundant attitude by seeking what is in for them.
• Habit 5: Seek first to understand, then to be understood
  Listen with the intent to understand, not to respond.
• Habit 6: Synergise
  Celebrate our different expertise.

Renewal

• Habit 7: Sharpen the saw
  Invest in yourself.

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Inside-Out is the Only Way-Out

It means to begin with oneself. Fundamentally, start with the most inside part of yourself – your worldview, character, and motives.

If you want to be trusted, be trustworthy. Remember that private victories precede public victories.

If there is no enemy within,
the enemy outside can do us no harm.

Eric Thomas

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To sum up

The book underlines the importance of self-mastery. To take care of what is inside first. Building character requires that we take a step-by-step approach inside-out: thought, action, habit, character.

Goal check: I learned to improve my thinking and act upon it until it becomes a habit that deepens my character.

Wasu’s Review
( 5.0 / 5.0 )

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