Shoka Magazine: The Seven Habit of Highly Effective People

A summary of the bestselling book by Stephen R. Covey.

From The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey. Published by Simon & Schuster.

INTRODUCTION  

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 in effectiveness. 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.

Some years ago, I decided to read all the success literature published in  the United States since its beginning in 1776 – hundreds of books, articles,  and essays on self-improvement and popular psychology.

I noticed a startling thing: Almost all the writings that helped build our  country in its first 150 years or so identified character as the foundation of  success. The literature of what we might call “The Character Ethic” helped  Americans cultivate integrity, humility, fidelity, temperance, courage,  justice, patience, industry, and the Golden Rule. Benjamin Franklin’s  autobiography is a prime example.

Compared with the early success literature, the writings of the last 50 years  seem superficial to me – filled with social image consciousness, techniques,  and quick fixes. There, the solutions derive not from the Character Ethic,  but the Personality Ethic:

Success is a function of public image, of attitudes and behaviors, of skills  that lubricate the process of human interaction. I don’t say these skills are  unimportant. But they are secondary.  

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. As Emerson once put it,  “What you are shouts so loudly in my ears I cannot hear what you say.”

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.