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Stephen Covey’s book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change explores how people can better themselves and their relationships with those around them.
It means taking responsibility for the things one has control over, like one's actions and thoughts, instead of blaming others.
Establish what is within your control and what isn’t. This will lower stress and frustration while boosting flexibility to adapt to change, openness and willingness.
Start by making small promises to yourself and keeping them. Eventually, make them bigger over time.
Covey recommends making a personal mission statement, visualising a character you want to become and asking what you want it to accomplish. Then make it your ambition.
It means managing time, organising and executing around priorities. The book recommends putting goals into a quadrant of important, not important, urgent and not urgent.
Think of the situation through a win-win lens, instead of arguing or getting into a power struggle. In most situations, there is a way for everyone to get what they want.
This habit boils down to active listening. Before giving advice or an opinion, consider who the other person is and why they think like they do. Show empathy while actively listening.
The real essence of this habit lies in valuing the differences (mental, emotional and psychological) between people. It prevents one from being stuck in an echo chamber.
This refers to investing in yourself by spending time improving yourself through exercising, meditating, reading books, and developing and maintaining relationships.
“As you care less about what people think of you, you will care more about what others think of themselves,” says Stephen R. Covey.
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