Read With Me: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, by Stephen R. Covey

Today is December 7th, 2018. 

It's the 49th week of the year. We're 18 days away from Christmas, and 25 days away from the end of the year. Soon, 2018 will be behind us. 

It's a good time to pause, turn back, remember, reflect and plan. To contemplate the intertwining of the past, present and future. To remember: the past year, with it's ups and downs, joys and sorrows, victories and disappointments, achievements and setbacks, goals and obstacles, the journey taken so far. To reflect: on who we are, where we're at, what we're doing and why. And to plan: for the road ahead, to re-orient our bearings, find "true north" again, and move forward to a better tomorrow. 

Several years ago, I came across a book during my formative undergraduate years that fundamentally changed me as a person and the direction of my life. The book and it's author were not just evolutionary in their impact; they were revolutionary. They challenged me to examine my own paradigms, character, and go on a journey of growth and change in search of congruence and principle-centered effectiveness. 

Over the three-year journey that he took me through at the time, Stephen R. Covey emerged from the pages of his seminal and definitive work, "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" to become more than just another author whose book I had read. He became a father figure, a mentor, a trusted friend, a counselor offering wisdom with humility, a companion and guide, a source of encouragement and hope, a role mode and hero. 

As this year draws to a close, I took my own autographed copy off the shelf, well-worn from reading over the years and and began turning through the pages once more. Taking his advice that sharing what one learns with others is the best form of learning, I invite you to join me with your own copy, or here and in my blog at Engineering Excursions as I share thoughts, observations and snippets on a journey with this great teacher. 

"Albert Einstein observed, "The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them." We need a new level, a deeper level of thinking - a paradigm based on the principles that accurately describe the territory of effective human being and interacting - to solve these deep concerns. This new level of thinking is what Seven Habits of Highly Effective People is about. It's a principle-centered, character-based, "inside-out" approach to personal and interpersonal effectiveness. Inside-out means to start first with self; even more fundamentally, with the most inside part of self - with your paradigms, your character and your motives." 

- Stephen R. Covey 

So I invite you to come remember, reflect, take stock, plan, "paradigm-shift" and change "inside-out" with me this Christmas as you get ready to wind down the year and look ahead with hope to 2019. I look forward to taking that journey together.

REFERENCES:

[1] The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change, 15th Anniversary Edition, Stephen R. Covey, pub. 2004, Simon & Schuster Inc.