Book Review: The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey

This classic personal effectiveness book is one of my all-time favorites.  I just read it for the third time, and believe everyone should read it at least once per decade. The book examines seven essential habits for personal effectiveness, giving detailed explanations and using real-life stories to illustrate.  Dr. Covey did an extensive review of the American literature of self-improvement and found that the earlier literature (the Puritans through the 19th Century) focused more on character, while the twentieth century literature focused more on techniques.  There is nothing wrong with learning techniques for success, but only if we start with the foundation of the proper character.  Accordingly, the Seven Habits focus more on the type of person we are (or are becoming) than tricks to get people to like us or do what we want.  He also introduces the concept of a paradigm, which is a mental model for how we see the world.  We are often not aware of our own paradigms, but they influence our conclusions by determining how we view the facts.  A habit is defined as “the intersection of knowledge, skill and desire.”  We need to know what to do and how to do it, and we need to want to do it.   

Keep reading here: The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey