7 Habits of Highly Effective People

In 1989 Stephen Covey published the book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. It is a business and self-help book that has sold more than 25 million copies worldwide and continues to be popular to this day.

It basically gives us seven great habits that we can incorporate into our every day lives that will set us apart from people who are not highly effective. Below is a brief description of each of the 7 habits of highly effective people.

“I am not a product of my circumstances, I am a product of my decisions”

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

  1. Be Proactive: Your life doesn’t just happen, it is carefully designed by you. The choices you make are yours. This is about taking responsibility for your life. Proactive people choose their behaviours and work on the things that are within their control (AKA their Circle of Influence) e.g. diet and exercise. A proactive person uses proactive language e.g. I can, I will rather than negative language e.g. I can’t.
  2. Begin with the end in mind: Start with a clear vision of your future in your mind. Covey says we can use our imagination to develop a vision of what we want to become and use our conscience to decide what values we will focus on going forward. This helps to ensure that the steps we are taking on a daily basis are in the right direction towards our end goal.
  3. Put First things First: We must have the discipline to prioritise our day-to-day actions based on what is most important, not what is most urgent.
  4. Think Win/Win: This is a frame of mind that constantly seeks a mutual benefit in all interactions. Win-win means agreements or solutions are mutually beneficial and satisfying.
  5. Seek first to understand, then to be understood: Before we offer advice, suggest solutions, or effectively interact with another person, we must seek to understand them and their perspective through listening. This habit is all about learning to listen.
  6. Synergise: By understanding the differences in another person’s perspective, we have the opportunity to create synergies. When one plus one equals three or more, when the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
  7. Sharpen the Saw: To be effective, we must devote time to ourselves. It means having a balanced program for self-renewal in the four areas of your life. This includes physically, socially, mentally and spiritually. The focus is on continuous improvements. This includes eating well, sufficient rest and relaxation, meditation, journaling our thoughts, reading and making contributions

“If we keep doing what we are doing. We are going to keep getting what we’re getting”

What should you do next?

If you think you could benefit from a life coach then please get in touch with me at caroline@raisethebarlifecoaching.co.uk where I will be happy to arrange a free 30 minute taster life coaching session with you.