What I Learned from “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” by Stephen Covey

If you are looking for a self improvement book that tackles all aspect of your life, then this book,  7 habits of highly effective people, is for you. Most books now focuses on one key thing and elaborate it which is good but as a starter, this is a good book because it does not focus only on your own self, but on how to talk and influence others. Whether it is to improve yourself or to be better in socializing, this book has it all.

The 7 habits of Highly Effective People are as follows:

  1. Be proactive
  2. Begin with the End in Mind
  3. Put First Things First
  4. Think Win-Win
  5. Seek First to Understand, then to be understood
  6. Synergy
  7. Sharpen the saw

7 Habits of Highly Effective People Summary and Review

Self improvement is messy, with lots of books, videos and articles to help you in your journey, you might think that it is for the best since we have a lot of choices. But here is the Kicker. It becomes confusing. With tons of things to try, most of us will feel overwhelmed. Decision fatigue is real. With lots of choices comes a mind panicking what to pick up first. Which book to read? Which tips to follow? Gladly, this book has all.

If I could rewind the past where I am just starting self improvement, I will recommend this book to myself to read first. It has lots of amazing tips, but primarily 7 habits to start and to use throughout your life. In fact, when I am just starting to make this video I literally spent hours staring at my screen because of how much good tips and information it can give. Really, How can I compress them all. As you know if you’re watching my videos, I want to make all things simple to make sure that everyone can follow the tips in the books in their lives. I never ever want to overload you with information because what’s the point of information if you don’t apply. 

Why 7 habits is important

So let’s start with this, why Habits. If you are going to read the book, the Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg, He made an amazing point on why habits are key to your success. But I’ll tackle on that more once I make a review for that book. So make sure to subscribe and hit the notification bell so you will be notified when it comes up. But for now, let’s just say that habits are one of the things that don’t require will power. Once it is a habit, you will continually do it forever. And always remember. As I always say in my videos. Tiny changes when done over time will produce big results.

Now, here is a disclaimer, this video will not be me explaining each habit like other review and summary videos. I always focus on the APPLICATION of the book. You don’t need me to make a big lecture on each of the habits.  What I can assure you is that I made this video a simple and easy summary of the book for you to quickly apply the concepts to up your self development journey. But make sure to stay tuned until the end of the video because I will be sharing a habit that will boost all the other habits I will be talking about in this video. But Seriously, this is a self development book on steroids. 

The Internal Habits

The best and most effective habit in the book, is being Proactive. I also feel that the author feels the same way as me, that’s why he made it the first habit out of the 7. But the problem is, it is one of the hardest to do. We are emotional creatures. In fact, most of our decisions are based on our emotion. We make better choices at good moods and bad choices when we are in a bad mood. It is in our built. Proactivity is the opposite of reactivity. You don’t let emotion get you, instead you should be ahead of your emotions.

It is the hardest to put into habit, but the most rewarding. You will always make better choices in life once you master this, you will also be less stressed out once you master this. But let me teach you how to make this simple.  That’s basically why I’m here. It basically comes with 3 concepts to put in your mind. Make notes if you can. 1. Focus on what you can control. 2. Focus on what you can do. 3. Do not ever complain.

In my mind, I always have this note which I would like to share with you guys. In anything happening in our lives, we can do three things. one is to something about it, two is to get over it and three is to never whine about it. Instead of complaining about your bad finances, read finance books to increase your knowledge. Instead of complaining that you are bad a making videos (me), study the new craft with a beginner’s mindset. There are always things you can’t control. Accept it, Improve yourself, and maybe one day, you will finally have the ability to control it. But if you can’t do something about it, accept, and get over it.

Weekly Planning

We are always being told to make a to-do list daily. To write what you will do that day.  In fact, it is one of the things people preach and why planners are usually designed to be daily. Here’s the problem with that. What’s happening in that day is usually not we expect or control. There will always be emergencies that you need to do. The big problem is what is happening in your mind In not finishing your to do list for that day. Ever wonder why you feel so down after not finishing your to do list? Of course, you feel like a failure. Now you want to give up. Don’t worry, I’ve been there.

That’s is why I don’t really have a daily to do list or task. Sure, I can have a to do list to make work simpler, but on self development tasks? Nah. Here is what you need to remember. Do not focus on your tasks, FOCUS ON YOUR PRIORITIES. What do I mean by that? If your focus is let’s say your finance, schedule your week that you will give at least 3 hours into reading finance books. Your priority is your family? Give some time for your family. The advantage of this is you do not need to be constricted by a to do list. Do what you think matters to you. Find what matters to you and do that weekly, and it will be a lot better because you will feel free. I already made a guide on weekly planning in one of my videos, if you want to know how I schedule my week, feel free to check that video. I will put a link in the description box.

The External Habits

Now that you have a simple guide on the internal habits, it is time for the external. External simply means that it is something out of yourself. Which means your interaction with people. We are social creatures to begin with and mastering these external habits is another major big leap to success. 

The Power of Teamwork

As a saying goes, two heads are better than one. How about making it a team? Usually, with more people working on a goal, the better the product is. So here are the habits to make you better at social interactions. 1. Don’t talk too much 2. Seek methods for both sides to win.

Remember this, you have two ears and one mouth. Talk less, let the other people talk. People like talking about themselves and there are a lot of advantages to it. One is they will feel better once with you, which makes cooperation sooooo much easier. Because they will like you since people want to talk about themselves, they will also be comfortable because they are releasing what bugs them. The second advantage is you will know the person better which makes easier for you to know what he or she can do. Now, that you know what the other person thinks, it will be easier to apply with win-win concept.

The win win concept is basically finding what works for both of parties. It is never wise to do otherwise. Win-win creates long lasting relationships with people. Lost-win makes you feel sad because who really wants to lose? Win-lose may work for now, but not in a long run. What makes it worse is that when people find out about that in you, you will lose all. And who wants Lose-lose anyway? Only desperate people who wants revenge do it. Win-win makes a happy, long lasting relationship with people, not just on work, but in life as a whole.

There are more things to say about how to be more social, but I think the other book How to Win Friends and influence People will do a better job. Make sure to check it out once the video is out. Get notified by subscribing and pressing the bell icon.

Internal and External

Before I end the video, there is one last habit I want to share with you. Which for me makes all the other habits better. It is the last habit in the book which is sharpening the saw. What does this even mean? Sharpening the saw is a concept in which you can cut down a tree faster and with less effort. Which means that you should always sharpen your saw. Sharpen your craft. Continue your journey toward self development. Don’t worry, I will help you out by releasing more videos. Practice each habit daily. Practice so it will soon come out naturally. I Promise, it works. I was really socially awkward before but by practicing and reading more books, it made me better in social interactions. Not perfect, but small things to make yourself better consistently done over time will always make a big result. For example, 1% better each day for a year will make you 3x better than before. I hope you learned a lot from this video and stay tuned for more book reviews. Remember that you can always comment down below if you recommend some books for me to make a review. I hope you have a nice day and see you on the next video.

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