The 7 habits how to#

Parents, family, friends, school, religion, culture, they all put one or more bricks in the foundation of our self. What's maybe even more important to realise, is that whatever decisions we make, or thoughts we have, they are all influenced by the conditioning we got from the environment. Of course, that is an extreme example, but at a deeper analysis of ourselves, and especially when interacting with people from a different culture than ours, we start noticing some of the things that we do/think, just because of the environment we come from. In these societies, a lot of people follow this path, even if they agree with it or not, because it feels like there is no choice, it's something given. Looking around, in some environments, it is expected for women to be housewives and to take care of children, while men provide for the family and make all the important decisions.

The 7 habits how to#

To not just react to stimuli from your environment as it is predicted, but realise that you have a choice regarding if and how to react to them. You know that an unfortunate situation might come, you search solutions in advance and take action to prevent it from happening.Īt the same, being proactive means to not be reactive. It's as simple as paying your bills early or on time, because you know that you will get fined otherwise, although there usually there's a grace period.

The obvious one, given by the name, is to act in advance of a situation from the future. There are multiple sides to being proactive. I'm going to mention some of them below, I hope just enough to make you want to read more! Habit 1: be proactive You have to look further than the names of the habits, there are plenty of aspects which don't really pop-up in your mind just by reading those. That basically sums up all the 7 habits: 3 for yourself, 3 for the relations with others and 1 to keep the wheels spinning. Be a good listener, be empathic and think about the whole, not just about yourself or some other person, but the whole, synergy ! And to complete the picture, you have to keep yourself fit, body, mind, soul. Think win - win, no matter who you ’ re dealing with. Once you have all these figured out, time to think about the others. You have to set a personal statement for yourself, just imagine you ’ re at your funeral, what would you like everyone to remember you for ? You have to focus on the most important things, not just urgent, of course you know what ’ s important, you just set up your personal statement before ! You have to be proactive, to be aware that you can make the choice of how you act, no matter what environment you ’ re in. It's not the first time I mention Covey's book, I have shared fragments from it and even gave an extremely short summary of the main concepts: It's one of those books, it's not enough to read them, or at least not just once, but you also should think deeply about the ideas in them and apply them into your life.

Originally published on, 19 January 2015īy accident, like most of the books I read, I stumbled upon Stephen Covey's book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.