THE 7 HABITS OF HIGHLY EFFECTIVE PEOPLE

This paper will review author Steven R. Covey's bestselling book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. This paper will also analyze Covey's habits and point out which habits will best cause people to become more effective leaders.

One of the first things which Covey points out is that "habits can be learned and unlearned" (46). Covey notes that breaking deeply embedded habits like impatience, procrastination, and selfishness can take time. However, breaking such unpleasant habits is often a crucial step toward a person's achievement of new goals. Although breaking unwanted habits takes a great commitment, Covey asserts that, if a person's desire to change is coupled with an understanding that one must be willing to subordinate what one wants now to achieve what one wants later, a person may reap rewards from his or her plans (46-48). Once a person is aware that acquiring new habits may involve the breaking or replacement of old habits, a person is mentally motivated to begin a new plan of action.

The first of Covey's habits of effectiveness involves being proactive. A good example which Covey gave of being proactive involved a married couple. The husband was complaining to Covey that the spark of romance and passion had gone out of his marriage (79). Covey's response to the despondent man was that he must love his wife. The author advised the husband to listen to his wife, make sacrifices for her, appreciate her,

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called "putting first things first." Most people are aware of the phrase "put first things first," but, for myriad reasons, not everyone is able to prioritize the things that are important to them. Also, even those people who are experts at writing down their lists of priorities admit that they are not always able to achieve their goals in the order in which they would like to. Hence, the most important part of the advice which Covey gives on "putting first things first" is the language which the author uses to express how people can actually put their lists of priorities into action in an efficient manner. Although Covey suggests that people focus first on the one thing which, if done consistently, would dramatically improve their personal or professional lives, some might argue that they are already aware of how they need to change, i.e., some people know that they should stop procrastinating or arrive on time to meetings. And other people already know how to stop things from interrupting them which might otherwise cause them not to complete important projects, e.g., some people already know how to say "no" to people or things which could get in the way of their most important goals. So the helpfulness of this particular
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Approximate Word count = 1925
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page)

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