The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
Do you wish you were more effective in life?
If your answer is ‘yes’, then the best way to achieve this is to adopt the habits of successful people.
As luck would have it, the author Stephen Covey wrote an extremely popular book called The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People on this very topic.
To date, it has sold more than 25 million copies worldwide.
When researching the book, Covey read hundreds of years worth of literature on the topic of success.
He determined that in the long run, you are better off focusing on improving your character as opposed to developing your skills.
By character, he meant the fundamental habits and belief systems that form your view of the world.
What are the 7 habits exactly?
1. Be proactive - Instead of just reacting to the world around you, create a set of goals for yourself and actively pursue them.
2. Begin with the end in mind - take time to visualise your desired outcome. Don’t rush ahead. Write down exactly the type of results you desire and the steps you will take to attain them.
3. Put first things first - focus on what’s most important. Prioritise everything you do so that the important things are always taken care of first, while everything else is set aside and then dealt with or delegated.
4. Think win-win - most situations in life don’t need to be competitions and there is normally enough pie for everyone. As Naval Ravikant says, “Play long-term games with long-term people. All returns in life, whether in wealth, relationships, or knowledge, come from compound interest.”
5. Seek first to understand, then to be understood - We don’t really listen to what they have to say and instead project our own situation onto them.
6. Synergise - “Each of us sees the world differently and we each have our particular strengths. You can leverage the power of synergy by being open with others and valuing these differences.”
7. Sharpen the saw - if you never pause to take care of yourself, any gains in effectiveness you achieve will be short-lived. Consciously make time to recuperate and recharge.
