Stephen Covey Quotes
-
Most leaders would agree that they’d be better off having an average strategy with superb execution than a superb strategy with poor execution. Those who execute always have the upper hand.
-
If I try to use human influence strategies and tactics of how to get other people to do what I want, to work better, to be more motivated, to like me and each other-while my character is fundamentally flawed, marked by duplicity and insincerity-then, in the long run, I cannot be successful. My duplicity will breed distrust, and everything I do-even using so-called good human relations techniques-will be perceived as manipulative.
-
As long as you think the problem is out there, that very thought is the problem
-
Your power to choose your direction of your life allows you to reinvent yourself, to change your future, and to powerfully influence the rest of creation.
-
Give no answer to contentious arguments or irresponsible accusations. Let such things "fly out open windows" until they spend themselves.
-
Almost all of the world-class athletes and other peak performers are visualizers. They see it; they feel it; they experience it before hey actually do it. They begin with the end in mind.
-
Habit 1: Be Proactive Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind Habit 3: Put First Things First Habit 4: Think Win/Win Habit 5: Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood Habit 6: Synergize Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw
-
We may find it convenient to live with the illusion that circumstances or other people are responsible for the quality of our lives, but the reality is that we are responsible-response-able-for our choices.
-
Technology and tools are useful and powerful when they are your servant and not your master.
-
All things are created twice. There's a mental or first creation, and a physical or second creation of all things. You have to make sure that the blueprint, the first creation, is really what you want, that you've thought everything through. Then you put it into bricks and mortar. Each day you go to the construction shed and pull out the blueprint to get marching orders for the day. You begin with the end in mind.
-
Once we are self-aware, we must choose purposes and principles to live by; otherwise the vacuum will be filled, and we will lose our self-awareness and become like groveling animals who live primarily for survival and propagation. People who exist on that level aren't living; they are "being lived".
-
Communication is the most important skill in life. We spend most of our waking hours communicating. But consider this: You've spent years learning how to read and write, years learning how to speak. But what about listening?
-
Love is a verb. Love is something you do: the sacrifices you make, the giving of self. If you want to study love, study those who sacrifice for others. Love - the feeling - is a fruit of love the verb.
-
If you want small changes in your life, work on your attitude. But if you want big and primary changes, work on your paradigm.
-
Power is the faculty or capacity to act, the strength and potency to accomplish something. It is the vital energy to make choices and decisions. It also includes the capacity to overcome deeply embedded habits and to cultivate higher, more effective ones.
-
Those who get the most out of life and those who give the most are those who make the choice to act.
-
Whether you're on a sports team, in an office or a member of a family, if you can't trust one another there's going to be trouble.
-
Trust is clearly a key competency. A competency or skill that can be learned, taught, and improved and one that talent can be screened for.
-
We develop our character muscles by overcoming challenges and obstacles.
-
Without exception, empathy is always appropriate.
-
Fundamentally, we are a product of choice, not nature (genes) or nurture (upbringing, environment).
-
Sometimes poor behavior is simply bad execution of good intent.
-
Whether we are aware of it or not, whether we are in control of it or not, there is a first creation to every part of our lives. We are either the second creation of our own proactive design, or we are the second creation of other people's agendas, of circumstances, or of past habits.
-
We're often so busy cutting through the undergrowth we don't even realise we're in the wrong jungle.