Do you want to bring about change in your life, but you’re not sure how?
Are you sick of living in the past and repeating the same broken cycle year after year?
I completely understand where you’re coming from.
Year after year, I repeated the same bad habits, using my past hurts as an excuse.
I used breakups and mediocre jobs sucking the life out of me as an excuse to drink. Used letdowns as an excuse to why I wasn’t doing better in life.
Always the victim.
While I made due and got by, I never had the motivation or tools needed to make lasting change. Change that would allow me to break the cycle and achieve the results I wanted, but didn’t know how to get.
Why does change have to be so hard?
Stephen R. Covey breaks down the 7 habits for personal change in his book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.
With over 25 million copies sold, it’s easy to see why this book has had such a profound impact in the lives of millions of people in 140 different countries.
Here are my biggest takeaways from this monumental read:
Takeaway #1: You Have to Achieve Success Privately Before You Achieve it Publicly
If you want to get success publicly, you have to get it privately first.
Success is not a product of bad habits and no vision for your future.
It is the product of little habits implemented daily and an understanding of where you’re headed as a result of your daily actions.
Covey says, “Too many of us-more than ever, I’m afraid-are trying to take a shortcut around the principles of life. We want love but not commitment…success without paying the price…thin bodies and our cake too. In other words, we want something we can never have-the rewards of good character without good character.” (p. 364)
You will never obtain success publicly if you’re not implementing the principles and changes needed to obtain it privately.
Takeaway #2: Principles are Timeless
Some of the best content in this book is from the final interview with Covey in the back of the book:
Covey says of change, “To live with change, we need principles that don’t change.” (p. 364)
You’d never guess this book was originally published in 1989-the principles Covey teaches have never applied more than they do today.
Throughout the book, Covey breaks down the 7 timeless principles to implement in your everyday life to successfully achieve change and get results.
Times may change. Technology may change. Timeless principles to continuously produce change in your own life will never change.
Takeaway #3: You Have the Ability to Choose
Covey says, “We can live out of our imagination, the future we wish to create, instead of being held hostage by the memory of our past. And the more exercise these endowments the greater becomes our freedom to choose. We can choose to make principles work for us or against us. I revel in that ability to choose.” (p. 364)
You have complete freedom to choose how you feel.
Outside forces only control your emotions and actions if you let them.
It’s up to you to implement real change in your life to live a life of purpose and victory.
Takeaway #4: You are Responsible for Your Identity and Choices
Quite possibly the most important takeaway of all is that the outcome of your future depends solely on you.
Do not look to outside forces to influence your future.
You must take responsibility.
Don’t just let life happen to you-find your purpose and live with intention.
Covey says, “The 7 habits remind you of your true nature. They remind you that you are in charge of your life. You are responsible-no one else-for your choices. No one outside yourself can make you think, do, or feel anything you do not choose for yourself. They remind you that you are the programmer and can write the program for your own future.” (p. 365)
Takeaway #5: Begin with the End in Mind
If you don’t know where you want to go, how will you progress past your current circumstances?
You have to see past your current circumstances to where you want to be. Use your imagination.
Don’t let life just happen to you. Think about where you want to be, and then take action to see that future come to fruition.
Covey says, “To begin with the end in mind means to start with a clear understanding of your destination. It means to know where you’re going so that you better understand where you are now and so that the steps you take are always in the right direction. (p. 105)
Takeaway #6: You have the Power to Produce
Your security shouldn’t be entrusted to your career or employer, but in your ability to produce.
To understand and know the power within you to produce wealth is to know true security and freedom.
Those with financial security didn’t just get there overnight-they unlocked their ability to produce wealth.
There is no gimmick to producing wealth, despite what society might tell you.
Is your mindset limiting you from producing wealth?
Covey says, “Your economic security does not lie in your job; it lies in your own power to produce-to think, to learn, to create, to adapt. That’s true financial independence. It’s not having wealth; it’s having the power to produce wealth.” (p. 316)
A Final Note
A staple of personal development learning, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People contains timeless principles. Practice them daily. But be warned: You cannot implement them in one day and be finished. Utilizing the 7 habits is a lifelong learning process. But in partaking in this lifelong journey, you’ll be greatly rewarded with a life of abundance.
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