Stephen Covey's Seven Habits
| posted by Fast Company staffOver the past few years I've really gotten a lot out of Stephen Covey's 7 Habits. Sometimes it sits on my coffee table (it's been a great conversation piece at times), sometimes it's next to my bed, sometimes it's next to the treadmill, and sometimes it's actually in the book case where it belongs.
It's been with me on fun pleasure travel and business travel too -- including some dreadful locations that I don't care to remember quite honestly. And sometimes it actually never made it out of my bag, but regardless it was/is always a great "JUST in case I feel like reading" take-along. And it's definitely a great plane and airport book too!
It's moved with me -- gosh, I think 3 times now. It's been in boxes and bags of all kinds and out again. I really try to learn, reflect on and implement the suggestions for success and HOPE that one day ALL will become my second nature (aka "habits") - then my book can finally retire and get some rest!
Anyway, I've read it through front to back several times. Each time, I've found new meaning and clarity in different sections. Lately I do something new with it -- each morning I randomly open the book and I read and think about whichever page(s) my eyes hit first. I do this with a couple of books. I like to think that whatever I am most needing that day in both my business and personal life will be presented to me by God or my higher power or the universe in various ways as long as I am open to it. Sometimes it's quite amazing!
But that's not why I'm writing this post. I'm writing because I want to share what I read today. "Did you ever consider how ridiculous it would be to try to cram on a farm -- to forget to plant in the spring, play all summer then cram in the fall to bring in the harvest? The farm is a natural system. The price must be paid and the process followed. You always reap what you sow; there is no shortcut."
Hmmm, you ALWAYS reap what you sow... it was good to read that today.
Comment
Recent Comments | 3 Total
August 9, 2005 at 7:03pm
roger fultonwhen I read posts like this, I am convinced we can sell Americans on almost anything. Repeat after me, "if you believe God or whatever higher power blah, blah..."
See, repeat it enuf and everyone will blab it, if I hear that one more time, I will toss my cookies in your vestibule. Americans, there is a God, or a Devil, or somewhere in between you've been inhaling the smoke from your lunch.
Marin County, California hot tubs cannot infect the rest of the country for long, and this Covey philosophy, repeated montra-wise will not brainwash you into wide-eyed, collapsed-synapse command and control corner office perfection, buddy.
A hundred years ago, I was a Wharton School graduate, three piece suit and all in Philadelphia. As the youngest airline District Sales Manager in aviation history in the third largest airline market in this country, I had gained what I felt was a pretty good foothold in my career. Oops.
Something cracked. I wanted off. Quick. If anyone can come up with the photographs of the Centennial Celebration of the Gunfight at the OK Corral October 21, 1981 -- that was me in the long white duster and brown hat, shooting it out in the OK Corral in Tombstone, Arizona.
Today, I'm back in the suit, working for a living.
I swim off point. Sometimes we all want to take a little space voyage. You want yours, I had mine. Point is, deep down, Suasalito Sam, you are what you are - it's in the genes. So, saddle up, cowboy is a state of mind. You'll be back in your own swimming pool someday, and a better man for it.
October 2, 2005 at 12:04pm
Stephen Covey 7 Habits Blog OwnerStephen Covey and his Seven Habits... ah yes, well, as I have a blog in which I discuss the 7 Habits and Stephen Covey, naturally I have a few things to add vis-a-vis the whole phenomenon of Covey/Habits.
Covey and his 7 habits are indeed hokey, cheesy, and patronising, but, hidden beneath and between the pages of Covey's Habits books is real-life wisdom and practical ideas. It is one of those problems and paradoxes: How do we get past the plastic/cardboard "packaging" that any self-help book (apparently) has to be wrapped in, to get to be critical and thoughtful about the ideas themselves? California-esque presentation, then, is a roadblock exactly to critical analysis of any text, and this definitely applies to Stephen Covey and his Seven Habits.
Covey has often been shat upon in the style of the previous commenter, and I think it is good and right that Oprah-esque brainwashing and nouveau religion be shat upon. However, automatically discounting what appears to be pulp non-fiction may be to miss some vitally important wisdom: ultimately, I agree with you that wisdom and practical help, while perhaps taking the form of "platitudes" (whatever that is supposed to mean...), can be found and should be sought in the 7 Habits and Stephen Covey.
April 6, 2007 at 4:41pm
timaThe 7 habits you have learned are still relevant. However, the Knowledge Worker Age calls for the need of an 8th habit that can help you further in your journey towards personal and organizational excellence.
You can read summary of the book Covey: The 8th Habit - From Effectiveness to Greatness
http://covey.ru/en/8th-habit.html