The 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People Book Review

“Seek First To Understand, Then To Be Understood” – Stephen Covey

The 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey provides great insights into living a more fulfilling personal and professional life. The book looks at both private and public victories with private victories starting with oneself and public victories dealing with people.

Private Victories have 3 habits which are:

1. Be Proactive – By taking responsibility and action for your own choices and decisions.

2. Begin With The End In Mind - Know your end desire, work through the process and accept it

3. Put First Things First – Prioritise what is most important and urgent.

Public Victories have 3 habits which are:

4. Think Win/Win – You get what you want and the other person gets what they want.

5. Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood – To be understood, first need to understand the situation of the other person by using empathic listening.

6. Synergise – Working with another person allows more creativity, imagination, ideas to flow, utilisation of each other’s skills, new perspectives and the end goal to be stronger.

The last habit to invest in yourself.

7. Sharpen The Saw – Invest in yourself physically, spiritually, mentally and socially/emotions.

With private victories I got a valuable insight into being proactive. I like how Viktor Frankel states that we do have freedom to make choices, express how we feel and how to respond to any situation. It is important for each of us to take responsibility for our own actions and how we choose to respond to a particular situation. It is how we respond to the situation that will determine our experience.

It is important begin with the end in mind. At times I have lacked clear goals. I have a mission statement which I now apply to both my personal and professional life. With my mission statements I have the end goal in mind which outlines the purpose why I am pursuing this desire, the process I will work with and making sure that the desire is linked in with my own values.

Always put first things first. We should be focusing on our main priorities first that are most important and urgent. I have identified what needs to come first in my own life. This requires careful planning and dedication to achieving goals. During Covid-19, I have become more realistic with my intended desires and will utilise my time best to get there.

A habit everyone should be thinking about is a win/win outcome. This is a strategy I have adopted which has allowed myself to understand clearly and listen to what the other person wants. I can focus on the method and not the reward, which will allow myself to address the problem and ignore the position. This is a positive attitude and outlook that everyone can adopt so each person achieves what they need and feels respected.

Most important insight I have taken is for myself to seek to understand, then to be understood. To fully understand the situation of the other person, empathic listening and assertive communication needs to be applied. I always put myself into the other person’s shoes so I can understand their mindset and framework of the situation and how they feel. It is important to realise that you do not have to agree or disagree with them. You just need to understand what they are going through.

Another concept I have implemented into my own life is to synergise. With synergy myself and the other person if it a friend, work colleague, coach or client to become more creative, imaginative, ideas to flow, utilisation of our skills and a stronger goal at the end if it is a personal or professional desire for each of us. More importantly synergy will allow myself and the other person to feel comfortable and safe while working together.

The most important asset is to invest in is ourselves. By focusing on our physical nature, we can exercise more and eat healthy. With our spiritual nature, we can be more present, comfortable with our thoughts and embrace solitude. With our mental nature, we can educate ourselves more by reading, watching documentaries and taking courses to work on our personal and professional development. With our social nature, we can work on our empathic listening and being present with people.

This is an enjoyable book to develop self-awareness and to work towards your end desires.