The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People was written by Stephen R. This book has been on the National Best Seller list for over 200 weeks. Many people have attended Covey's seminars on the subject. Many companies have required top executives to read this book including AT & T, Dow Chemical, Ford, Deloitte and Touche, Marriott, Xerox and Ritz Carlton Hotels.
This book proposes that there are seven habits that can be learned to improve one's personal and interpersonal effectiveness. Covey describes a habit as "the intersection of knowledge, skill and desire." Knowledge would represent the "what to do", skill the "how to do", and desire the .
"want to do". In order to create a habit in our lives, we must have all three.
Habits 1, 2, and 3 relate to Private Victory with habit 4, 5, and 6 relating to Public Victories and .
Habit 7 being involved with Renewal. .
Habit one is to be proactive. This habit says that as human beings we are responsible for our own lives. Our behavior is a function of our decisions, not our conditions. We create our own destiny. The proactive person acts rather than waiting to be acted upon.
According to Covey, part of increasing our self-awareness is understanding our Circle of Concern, that is, our range of concern with which we have mental or emotional involvement. A Circle of Influence resides inside the Circle of Concern reflecting those things over which we have control.
Habit two is to begin with the end in mind. If we paint a visual image of what we want our life to be then we actually provide a frame of reference within which all our behaviors can be examined. We must understand where we are going. We should develop a personal mission statement. It will provide the basic direction of our lives. This statement will force us to give thought to our values and what we want to accomplish in life.
In the third habit, Covey tells us to put first things first. Independence is crucial in this habit.