Stephen Covey- The 7 habits of Highly Effective poeple

My thoughts after reading first 12 pages of the “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” novel are as follows:

Common practices are in stark contrast from principled solutions and ineffective people are ruled by the below factors such as:

1.    Fear and Insecurity -  Most of our daily life is spent on securing our future, our possession, our relations. We are always worried of losing what we already have and most of the times this acts as a major impediment to achieve anything new or even learn anything new. One has to go beyond fear and naturally this will also help in feeling secure which in turn will help in creating a positive mindset, a open mind to accept new challenges (to accept challenges instead of seeing them as threats and staying in our own cocoon) and continuously learn to adapt ourselves to changes.

2.    Impatience and short term satisfactions - Whatever we want, we want it right now. People say it is the whole generation problem. We say why wait when we deserve to get everything that we ask for. Well, if I alone decide that “ I deserve” no wonder that I will get impatient -  fundamentals are wrong here don’t you think. We should let our actions decide for us, we must constantly reinvent and re-educate ourselves to survive. It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but rather the one most adaptable to change. So lets set a long term goal to survive in the toughest of competition by putting in our efforts in a steady manner to adapt with patience.

3.    Blame and victimization - Blame and victimization has never done any good to anyone till date. It is like our soap operas, dramatic and never ending. Its very easy to blame outside factors (other people, outside situation etc) and crying over getting victimized. However, both are a waste of time and energy, which will many times lead to troubled image of self and gets the worst of every relationship. So any situation should be handled in a objective manner to solve instead of blaming or victimizing.

4.    Hopelessness - If only our ancestors had resented to “Hopelessness” during their tough times, human species would have been wiped off the our planet. We are the same species who have fought famines, earth quakes, ferocious animals, oceans, bloody long wars and we have almost lost every possession, loved ones still we survive. We have to face life as long as we are alive and hope is believe me the best companion that has been with us all our lives right from Adam and Eve. Reminds me of a famous quote from Shawshank Redemption Movie "hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies".

5.    Lack of life balance - What’s important in life keeps changing every second is what we think, we also feel that once we achieve a particular goal we will be happy and that what we want in life but don’t you think that we get carried away in achieving the goal so much that we actually forget the main point as to why we set out to achieve that goal. Happiness is state that everyone has to be in, that they have to strive to achieve. This fact has been acknowledged even by great psychologist like Abraham Maslow during his last few days on Earth and this fact has also been very beautifully included even in United Stated Declaration of Independence by saying “Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness “. If  even the most capitalistic country includes this in their Independence declaration  then don’t you think this is something that everyone has to strive to achieve!

6.    Selfishness - Selfishness has ruined kingdoms, has made brothers kill each other, has broken many beautiful relationships. But even after doing the worst deeds that anyone could imagine, owner of selfishness has never been at peace. Because happiness, peace are those things that can be achieved by being selfless, by helping others, by growing together, by achieving together like we are doing in IU.

7.    Hunger to be understood - We will never listen to anyone but we surely expect and hope that the whole world listens to us. First thing we should understand is it’s mutual relationship, once we listen to people and empathize with them, am sure they will reciprocate the same.

8.    Conflict and Differences - I found this idea the most interesting and though provoking because here the author introduce a great idea which could not only solve all our personal, professional problem but if this idea is made the barometer am sure we can solve most of the problems faced in our World today and in future too.
Differences are a part of life as every person has lot in common and magnificently lot more differences. Conflict is a natural outcome of these differences but right now the best way conflicts are solved is by compromising, where in the parties involved reach an acceptable lower point and neither gets what they had started with or better. This art of compromising is a waste of the magnificent differences we have inherited, only by mutually cooperating and creating a solution which is greater than the sum of both our differences will lead us to use this great human ability. The outcome of this “creative cooperation” cannot always be measured in terms of numbers like most of the best things in life yet like we strive for these priceless moments we have to try and make best use of the differences that we all are gifted with to solve all kinds of problems immaterial of their nature.

9.    Personal Stagnation - Stagnation is not good, it could be harmful enough to cause end to lives. If nature has though us one important thing then that is “ ADAPT”. We have changed, we have adapted and that’s why we are still alive else we would be endangered species too.  We need to continuously change and adapt to survive in this ever fast moving times. Stagnation is not even an option. Beautifully used in one of the Bollywood movie “ I want to fly, I want to run, I even want to fall but I don’t want to just stand”



I would like to leave with awesome lines from the book “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” -
“ To learn and not to do is really not to learn.
   To know and not to do is really not to know.”

Psychologist Abraham Maslow's HIerarchy of needs

While reading “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” I came across Abraham Maslow, a renowned psychologist. So I looked up to read about him and found that his contribution to the understanding of the human psychology is great and his best work is “ Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs” - a theory of psychological health predicated on fulfilling innate human needs in priority, culminating in self-actualization. Its a pyramid with 5 distinct levels and a human transcends from the bottom most to the top after satisfying the needs in each level, levels here also cover our famous Indian saying“ Roti, Kapda and Makkan”. The 5 levels of the “Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs” from the bottom are

1.    Physiological – At the bottom of the hierarchy there as basic needs such as breathing, food, water, sleep etc
2.    Safety – Second level covers safety of body, employment, resources, morality, family, health and property.
3.    Love/ Belonging – Third level covers various relationship in human life
4.    Esteem – Fourth level covers self- esteem, confidence, achievement, respect of others, and respect to others.
5.    Self Actualization - Fifth level consists of Morality, Creativity, Spontaneity, problem solving, lack of prejudice and acceptance of facts.

He was initially of the opinion that one person cannot move to a next higher level without fulfilling levels from the bottom of the pyramid. Later he concluded that self-actualization was not an outcome of satisfying the other human needs.

During the end of his life he put happiness, fulfillment and contribution to this posterity ahead of his self-actualization, calling it self- transcendence.

And we call it “Pursuit of Happiness”.

Learning from the successful people

“The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” authored by Mr. Stephen R. Covey is the novel that I chosen to read next. Let me explain why this book instead of numerous books which give a details description about how major Organizations were formed, about the life of the founder on a personal and professional level, S.W.A.T analysis  of the company and so on, I chose this book because I feel people are the center of every achievement till date and like Antony Robbins – author of Unlimited Power and Awake The Giant Within- says “ fundamentals are the key to success” and I strongly believe that understanding the habits of effective people are the fundamentals that a budding achiever has to start with. Once I am done with this book, I would definitely read about the great minds that have changed many lives. But right now it is this one and I hope I learn as much as I wish I could.

Well, let me pen down the habits that I think are the most fundamental of highly effective people so that I can compare once I finish reading the book. According to me the habits of highly effective people are:

1.    Empathetic to people, One who strives for greater good and for symbiotic relationships
2.    Smart worker (combination of goal orientation, long term strategist, great planner and dedicated person)
3.    Great networking skill holder
4.    Ingrained with great value system
5.    A Continuous Learner
6.    Patient (with people, situation, wait for success)
7.    Someone who carves out a better and higher form in future after every failure.

I would like to call it Harshitha's Prediction of 7 habits of highly effective people ;)  :P