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7 Habits of Highly Effective People Book Summary

Tom Ferris quoted “Show me your habits and I will predict your future”. This is a perfect quote because one’s habit is his/her identity. In the year 1989, Stephen R Covey published 7 Habits of Effective People which is one of the best self-help books of all time.

The 7 habits of highly effective people are mentioned below. If one wants to be effective in his/her life then he/she can do it by following the 7 points.

1) Be proactive

When GST (Goods and service tax) was applied in India, many of the business people protested on the new tax application.

Reactive

Even if they knew it was not going to affect them really still they protested on it instead of understanding the actual purpose of GST. This only led to their wastage of time and energy. These people are known as Reactive People in the book 7 habits of effective people. These people always blame others for everything.

Proactive

On the other side, a few businesspersons instead of blaming on government tried to understand the GST concept and took this as an opportunity to improve it. These kinds of people are known as Proactive People in the book 7 habits of effective people. Effective people always concentrate on trying to work on the solution rather than playing the blame game.

Instead of giving excuses, one must go on the scope of improvement

2) Begin with the end in mind.

According to the author, anything is created two times. Firstly, in mind then in the real world. For example, one prepares a blueprint to build anything then build it in the real world. Likewise one needs to contemplate a bit whether this is what he/she wants to Activate before taking a decision in life.

3) Put First things first

In a day we have a list of work to complete. One gets into discombobulating the tasks and is unable to complete all the tasks effectively or timely. To avoid it the author has advised the readers to opt for the matrix method and complete the tasks accordingly.

not urgent and important (2nd quadrant), then Urgent and important tasks(1st quadrant) to be completed first is next then urgent but not important and lastly to put the not urgent and not important tasks.

Therefore one must prioritize the work and then complete it to be called an effective person.

4) Think win-win

Effective people are not selfish. They work and think for others too. These kinds of people combine the work in a way that everyone is winning in completing a task. So for them, it is a win-win, not a win.

5) Seek first to understand, then to be understood

This totally depends on how a person listens to another. There are 5 types of how one is listening to someone.

@ Ignoring Listening

@ Pretending Listening

@ Selective Listening

@ Attentive Listening

@ Emphatic Listening

The author in the book 7 habits of highly effective people suggests readers follow empathetic listening. In this type of listening one listens to the other by his/her perspective and feelings. This is how one can fully understand whatever he/she is saying.

6) Synergize

Synergize implies working together in order to be effective. Anything around us works in this principle only, for example, Vehicles, robots, machines. All the parts combine so perfectly and give a result that is a perfectly designed product.

In a similar way, one must not work on an entire product. It should be divided among people to get an effective result.

7) Sharpen the Saw; Growth.

When we sharpen the saw the work becomes easier. Similarly if one develops oneself physically, socially, mentally, and spiritually then he/she can achieve anything in an easy way.

Sharpening the sow is the continuous learning process

The whole day’s 90% work is done by our habits. If one replaces the habits with these 7 habits then he/she can also become a highly effective person.

To buy the book CLICK HERE

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