As a result of I have been driving backwards and forwards from Corvallis to Portland a lot recently to take care of my mom and cousin, I’ve had ample to time to take heed to audiobooks. I discover that I am really grateful for the chance to “learn” on this vogue. (Like many of us, the previous decade has destroyed my consideration span and skill to learn for lengthy intervals.)
I am at present studying Stephen R. Covey’s basic The Seven Habits of Extremely Efficient Folks. (5 stars on Amazon in 5672 critiques!) I learn the e-book as soon as lengthy, way back — someday in the course of the mid-1990s. I’ve referred to it at times because the years have passed by, however largely I’ve forgotten its classes.
Or so I believed.
In actuality, it seems that a lot of my private philosophy is just like the precepts Covey covers. It is stunning, actually, simply how a lot of my private and monetary philosophies align with these introduced in Seven Habits. I have never consciously or intentionally emulated his teachings, however I’ve wound up in the identical place nonetheless.
For these unfamiliar, The Seven Habits of Extremely Efficient Individuals are as follows:
- Be proactive. Take accountability to your personal life. Take the initiative and do not merely settle for what you are given. (Listed here are my ideas on turning into proactive.)
- Start with the top in thoughts. Have a plan to your life. Know the place you wish to go — and why. Like me, Covey is a proponent of writing a private mission assertion.
- Put first issues first. Type out your priorities (which is far simpler to do when you will have an finish in thoughts). Focus your consideration on the issues which might be pressing and necessary. Covey’s “massive rocks” metaphor comes from this part.
- Suppose win-win. When attainable, search mutually useful options to issues. Do not be adversarial. Assist others obtain their goals as you obtain yours.
- Search first to undertand, then to be understood. Do not be in a rush to be proper. Take heed to what others are saying. (Really hear.) Observe empathy. I really feel like this can be a seldom-practiced ability in trendy society, which is why I urge individuals to follow monetary empathy.
- Synergize. Discover methods to work with others with the intention to obtain mutual goals and achieve issues that you simply could not do alone.
- Sharpen the noticed. Find time for private renewal. Hold your life-style balanced. Pursue self-improvement.
It is also price noting that apparently Covey is chargeable for coining the phrases “abundance mindset” and “shortage mindset”. (That is what Wikipedia says, anyhow. I would have to do additional analysis earlier than I really accepted this as a truth.) I too imagine strongly that every of us ought to foster an abundance mindset, when attainable.
Whereas there’s a lot that is the identical between my philosophy and Covey’s, issues aren’t fully similar.
Covey talks about dependence and independence, as I do, however he takes issues to a different degree by discussing interdependence. I like this. Independence, Covey says, is superior to dependence. It is higher to be self-reliant than to rely upon others to meet your wants. However, he says, it is even higher to work collectively to realize widespread goals. The entire is bigger than the sum of its components.
I agree with him, however I have never (but) integrated this perception as a part of my life philosophy. Maybe I’ll within the close to future.
Covey goes down some rabbit holes that I do not discover notably necessary. (I simply listened to a half-hour phase on the values that make up our private “facilities”. Meh.) Plus, he frequently praises human beings as totally different in “variety” from different animals versus totally different “in diploma”. I disagree with him 100%. (I imagine that people are simply one other animal, and there is nothing notably outstanding about us apart from we’re at present the dominant species on the planet.)
Small quibbles apart, I am discovering The Seven Habits of Extremely Efficient Folks to be a outstanding e-book exactly as a result of its philosophy is so aligned with my very own. After I learn it at age 25, I dismissed it as self-help pap. I used to be mistaken. Or, extra exactly, I wasn’t able to understand its knowledge.
I am undecided how my philosophy ended up so carefully aligned with Covey’s. It’s extremely attainable that studying this e-book 25+ years in the past planted seeds in my unconscious which have grown over time and now have produced fruit that resemble his. Nevertheless it’s additionally attainable that my beliefs are merely a by-produce of age and expertise, that many individuals attain these similar conclusions in time.
Anyhow, I am keen to complete my work at present on the household field manufacturing unit. As soon as I run payroll and meet with our accountant, I will drive again to Corvallis. And once I do, I will hear to a different 90 minutes of Seven Habits. I am unable to wait!