7 habits, 8 habits, whatever it takes...

The last three days I've spent in a classroom with other professionals from virtually every other discipliine, being taught about unchanging principles, values we choose and modify, and Stephen Covey's (as in Franklin Covey) seven habits of highly effective people. Overall I was quite impressed with the material. There was far too much for me to cover in the blog, but I'll scratch the surface since one of the concepts of the course was three-person learning (ie. the taught person passing on what he/she has learned, including personal experiences and value).

Before delving into the habits themselves, Covey focuses like a laser-beam on one of (IMHO) the core break-downs in our society: the substitution of timeless principles with the politically-anchored "Social Values". Principles, which can very easily be pronounced "Biblical Principles" for those who care, are unchanging, foundational truths, like "honesty" and "selflessness", etc... This shift is evident in our change of focus from personal character (the makeup of a person which is under the surface) to "personality" (the outward appearance). According to Covey, he noticed literature mirroring this shift about 50 years ago. Of the 200 years fo literature studied, the first 150 years found literature glorifying the character (pronounced "moral character") of its heros, these past 50 years have brought about a shift toward the personality of the hero. Rather than nobility, circumstance is the focus. Principles, and thus good-character, is not impacted by circumstance. All hope is not lost, however. I found "character" in the unlikely source of my daughter's Disney video last night: Aladdin. To sum up, we need to develop character, and live our lives based on principles. Quite refreshing to hear from such a popular, secular course.

Habit 1: Think Proactively

While I could bean Covey for redefining the word, I'll forgive him since the concept is such a worthy one: In a nutshell, take ownership of your own actions. Personal responsibility is the very core of this habit.

The habit is actually focused on our ability the choose how we respond to circumstances and stimulii. Whereas it has become commonly accepted to simply react to events, Covey encourages us to make use of our right to separate the circumstance from our response and insert our values and principles into the equasion. Thus, when someone insults us, while our natural response may be to chase him down and make him wish his mother was a virgin, we are able to choose a response appropriate to principles like "love" and "patience" and "forgiveness". While these things don't seem glorious, they certainly used to be, and will indeed make an extreme impact on your life. I remember my parents first learning something similar: instead of "reacting", "responding". Where a reaction is scripted and does not require thought (eg. nuclear reaction), a responce is considered, and should be appropriate. Self-control.

Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind

Wow, this shouldn't be nearly as profound as it is. At least to me. When I first read this several months ago, it impacted how I live my life in a very real way. I started thinking about what success looks like in every situation, realizing that as I become responsible for more and more (eg. father, project manager, and many other important roles I live) I can't be relying on others to guide me the whole way. I used to look at a project, pick the most difficult things and go after them... When I had been working on them for a while, I ended up feeling lost in the project. Quite frankly I became afraid of completing what I was working on because I wasn't sure of the next steps. BEginning with the end in mind allows success to be defined early on, and this is important to be able to refer back to after you've been face-to-face with too many details for too long.

In order to better understand the "mental creation" process, we need to understand what is important. This habit got into Finding the Center, and writing a Personal Mission Statement. More on that in Habit 3.

If you want to be successful, you must first know what success looks like: Begin projects with the end in mind.

Habit 3: Put First Things First

This is a very introspective habit. In order to put first things first, one must first clearly define what's most important. Covey shows how having most important things as one's "center" neglects everything else. He encourages us to put Principles as our center, the most important things taken into account when making decisions. My center had a slightly different word, but Principles is close enough.

With so much bombarding us in this era of overbusiness, little things can overwhelm our schedule and cause us to neglect the important things. We should not learn to prioritize our to-do list, but should build our to-do list based on our priorities. The smaller stuff gets added last, if at all. The bigger stuff includes many important items, including major projects, vacation, family, and habit 7: "Sharpening the Saw"

Covey introduces the 4-quadrant view on priorities:

I) Important and Urgent

II) Important but not urgent

III) Not Important, Urgent

IV) Not Important, Not Urgent

Quadrant II is the "sweet spot" so to speak. It is where regular maintenance and most valuable work gets done. If you spend a lot of time in Quadrant I (constant fire-fighting) you probably aren't spending enough time in Quadrant II, taking care of business.

Too much Quadrant I can lead to Quadrant IV, which includes "Escape Behavior", also known as "recovery". While this is surviveable, it is not efficient. If you try driving a hundred thousand miles without an oil change, the car ain't gonna last that long.

To be continued....

The other 4 habits, and a comment on the "8th habit" to follow. There is *much* more to this, since Stephen fills a book and three days of classes. This is almost completely from memory, in order to (a) cement the habits in my mind, and (b) avoid any possible plagarism complaints. That said, buy and read the book or take a course. It's worth it.