As we embark on Optimized October, let’s take a few minutes to review The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People that we’ve been sharing over the past 7 months. Whatever habit you’re hoping to focus on this month, check out these links and apply the content to optimize your life! Habit 1: Be Proactive Habit …
Continue reading “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (A Review)”
As the Autumnal Equinox arrives on September 23rd, signaling the transition to shorter days and longer evenings, it’s a fitting time to reflect on the balance in our lives. Just as the sun’s crossing above Earth’s equator prompts us to ponder equilibrium, we can also turn our attention to Habit 7 from The 7 Habits …
Continue reading “Sharpen the Saw (Habit 7) – Take Time for Renewal”
In the journey towards personal and professional effectiveness, one habit stands out as a catalyst for growth and innovation – Synergize. This sixth habit from The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People is all about the power of creative cooperation, where working closely with others and capitalizing on cumulative strengths can lead to outcomes that …
Continue reading “Synergize (Habit 6) – The Habit of Creative Cooperation”
Communication is an essential skill in life. We invest years in learning how to read, write, and speak, but what about listening? How much training have we received to truly understand another human being? The truth is, most of us have had little to no training in the art of listening deeply. We often prioritize …
Continue reading “Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood (Habit 5)”
Almost every conversation includes negotiation. If you listen closely, you’ll hear a lot of pleasant disagreements disguised as idle chatter. Disagreements are healthy. It’s been said that if two people agree on everything all the time, only one person is doing the thinking. But what happens when your disagreements get in the way of productivity? …
In today’s fast-paced world, time is of the essence, and it can feel like we never have enough of the precious resource. We are constantly juggling multiple priorities and struggling to keep up with everything that demands our attention. However, the truth is that we have the power to decide where our time and energy …
In his book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen R. Covey explains that all things are created twice: first in our minds, and then in reality. To create the life we want, we must start with a clear understanding of our destination. We need to know where we are going in order to …
In Stephen R. Covey’s book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, the first Habit he teaches is “Be Proactive”. There’s a reason for this: it will be much harder to implement the other six habits if you don’t focus on being proactive first. Being proactive means thinking about the future and focusing on the …
Practice Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw To “Sharpen the Saw” means preserving and enhancing the greatest asset you have—you. It means having a balanced program for self-renewal. This may sound intimidating, but it’s actually much simpler than it sounds. It could include taking care of your body by eating right, exercising, and getting the right …
In the bestselling book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen R. Covey’s sixth habit is Synergize. This was a fairly popular word in the 90s, especially in the business sphere, but has fallen out of the common vernacular in recent years. Perhaps it’s time to reevaluate the meaning of this word to …
A common default of humans is to listen with the intent of responding. We like to have something to say, something to add. We each filter everything we hear through our life experiences, our frame of reference. We then check what we hear against our autobiography and see how it measures up. Consequently, we decide …
Continue reading “Practice Habit 5: Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood”
Almost every conversation includes negotiation. If you listen closely, you’ll hear a lot of pleasant disagreements disguised as idle chatter. Disagreements are healthy. It’s been said that if two people agree on everything all the time, only one person is doing the thinking. But what happens when your disagreements get in the way of productivity? …
Habit 3: Put First Things First is about life management – your purpose, values, roles, and priorities. But what are your “first things”? Many would say their first priority is their family, but struggle to actually put them above everything else, especially work. It’s easy to make the case that work simply HAS to come …
Continue reading “Implementing Habit 3 By Putting Family First”
Stephen Covey taught that all things are created twice. There’s a mental or first creation, and a physical or second creation. This is clearly evident in the process of building a home. You envision what your ideal home will be and you take that vision to the architect. Together you work through each detail of …
In his book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey discusses the importance of scheduling time to relax. Just like you can’t cut down a tree with a dull saw, you can’t perform to your greatest extent without taking time to rejuvenate yourself physically, spiritually, mentally, and socially/emotionally. But with September comes a …
Continue reading “Back to Busy – How to Continue Sharpening the Saw”
“This is the single most powerful investment we can ever make in life—investment in ourselves, in the only instrument we have with which to deal with life and to contribute.” – Stephen R. Covey Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw is all about self-renewal. Stephen R. Covey calls it Balanced Self-Renewal because in order to feel …
“Valuing the differences is the essence of synergy—the mental, the emotional, the psychological differences between people. And the key to valuing those differences is to realize that all people see the world, not as it is, but as they are.” —Stephen R. Covey Simply defined, Synergy means that the whole is greater than the sum …
“Satisfied needs do not motivate. It’s only the unsatisfied need that motivates. Next to physical survival, the greatest need of human beings is psychological survival—to be understood, affirmed, validated, and appreciated.” —Stephen R. Covey Theodore Roosevelt is credited for saying, “Nobody cares how much you know until they know how much you care.” That statement …
Continue reading “Habit 5: Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood”
“If I focus on my own Win and don’t even consider your point of view, there’s no basis for any kind of productive relationship.” —Stephen R. Covey We live in a competitive society. That competition has shaped us as groups and individuals. It has not only played an integral role in our survival as a …
“When you have too many top priorities, you effectively have no top priorities. Regarding strategic goals, it’s important that they are few, prioritized, and measurable.” —Stephen R. Covey We’ve all heard the phrase, “If everyone is special then nobody is special.” There’s a lot of truth to that. Not every movie becomes a blockbuster hit. …
