Everyone should be doing something every day to make these priorities a way of life, and that involves the real grind of life. The last and final point is balanced renewal regarding spiritual, mental, social, and emotional priorities. But when implemented, it really strikes at the heart of a lot of problems, which is not making the world better by you being in it the world should be a better place before of people. As for other points, this is more difficult than one would think when trying to actually make the world better for two or more people. This could be all sorts of things: getting along well with your significant other to make the quality of both your lives better, collaborating with someone at work to do a better job on something, and those kinds of things. The sixth point is about creative cooperation, which translates to engaging in activities with other people that will not only be mutually beneficial but will arrive at a result that no one could have done alone. If you do this, then you will truly be able to understand another person better. To make sure you're listening well, track the other person's feelings about something and be able to rephrase what that person's concerns are as though they were your own. This means listen first before you yourself want to be understand. The fifth point is more difficult than it seems, and that is engage in empathic communication with other people. If an agreement is made that's not Win-Win, then one party will feel like he or she is getting the bad end of the stick. Any given solution must be good for both parties and if it isn't then it really shouldn't be done. This step, by the way, involves a lot of discernment on someone's part to find out what he or she really wants to achieve here, and, yes, is very difficult.įourth point: When you want to do anything together with anybody, ever, work hard to make the situation a Win-Win situation, and if you can't arrive at a Win-Win situation, then it just must be a No-Deal situation. There should be constant movement toward those ends and less time spent with distracting matters. Think about the ends you want to put your activities toward and realize that if you are getting too concerned in life now with matters that don't matter, that is, that don't match the end-states you want to reach, then maybe you should reconsider the activities you're engaging in now to better reach those end-goals. Presumably, a person doing exercise wants to get healthier (or lose weight or feel better, etc.). A person playing chess wants to checkmate the king. Points two and three involving keeping your endgame in mind when making plans and prioritizing activities that get you closer to your endgame. But any time before you find yourselves beginning to act out one of these default responses, ask yourself if this is the only way you can respond to it and if it is the best way. Now, it's true, our default settings are sometimes overwhelming, and sometimes naturally we all feel like we can't choose how to respond to a situation because a feeling overwhelms us. You can choose to be angry, choose to be sad, choose to be happy, puzzled, etc., but the ultimate realization here is that between that moment when an external event occurs and your response to that external event, you can choose to respond any way you want. The first point is that you have the choice to how you would like to respond to any event. I'll state this a bit more concretely in a moment, but first let's see what Covey's actual recommendations are. In other words, the aim is to get a person to discover what he or she values the most and then after landing on that then put those values into action in daily life, constantly renewing what was committed to. Any person can do that with a little reorientation regarding what's important to them, especially as these personal values turn into a real action plan. Cognitive therapy is a mode of therapy whose sole aim is to get a person to improve his or her stinkin' thinkin'. And if you do read it and don't like it, what did you lose, really, except the bit of time you spent reading and the cost of the book?Įssentially, this book is a kind of cognitive therapy. However, if you do happen to struggle with improving certain aspects of your life, you might want to read this. That's fine, and if you're one of those people, then this book isn't for you. I've met several people who feel that self-improvement books are hogwash and say they don't need a book to give them motivation to do something. Books like Stephen Covey's 7 Habits of Highly Effective People Personal Workbook and its counterpart The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People sell for the same basic reason cookbooks or diet and exercise books do: People are eager to improve their lives.
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