7 Habits to Jumpstart Your Most Effective 2018

I first read Stephen Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People when I was a freshman in college.  Although that was nearly 20 years ago, I still remember the impact it made on me.  These habits were simple, yet profound.  In fact, the first time I’d heard of the powerful concept “paradigm shift,” was in this book — a necessary concept if you wish to be a successful interpersonal communicator.  It’s also a crucial skill for fundraisers, social service providers, and ministers (among many others).

Since that college course back in 1999, I’ve made it a habit to regularly read through Dr. Covey’s 7 habits.  I spend time meditating on where I’ve been successful, and where I need a paradigm shift (or just more practice).
 

Read through these important habits below, and evaluate where you are now and where you want to be. Cheers to being the most effective ‘you’ in 2018! 

• Habit 1:  Be Proactive
  Change starts from within, and highly effective people make the decision to improve their lives through the things that they can influence, rather than by simply reacting to external forces.
• Habit 2:  Begin with the End in Mind
  Develop a principle-centered personal mission statement.  Extend the mission statement into long-term goals, based on personal principles.
• Habit 3:  Put First Things First
  Spend time doing what fits into your personal mission, observing the proper balance between production and building production capacity.  Identify the key roles that you take on in life, and make time for each of them.
• Habit 4:  Think Win/Win
  Seek agreements and relationships that are mutually beneficial.  In cases where a “win/win” deal cannot be achieved, accept the fact that agreeing to make no deal may be the best alternative.  In developing an organizational culture, be sure to reward win/win behavior among employees, and avoid inadvertently rewarding win/lose behavior.
• Habit 5:  Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood
  First seek to understand the other person, and only then try to be understood.  Stephen Covey presents this habit as the most important principle of interpersonal relations. Effective listening is not simply echoing what the other person has said through the lens of one’s own experience.  Rather, it is putting oneself in the perspective of the other person, listening empathically for both feeling and meaning.
• Habit 6:  Synergize
  Through trustful communication, find ways to leverage individual differences to create a whole that is greater than the sum of the parts.  Through mutual trust and understanding, one often can solve conflicts and find a better solution than would have been obtained through either person’s own solution.
• Habit 7:  Sharpen the Saw
  Take time out from production to build production capacity through personal renewal of the physical, mental, social/emotional, and spiritual dimensions.  Then work to maintain a balance among these dimensions.