Stephen Covey Quotes
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You think effectiveness with people and efficiency with things.
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Self-awareness is our capacity to stand apart from ourselves and examine our thinking, our motives, our history, our scripts, our actions, and our habits and tendencies.
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Leadership is communicating people's worth and potential so clearly that they come to see it themselves.
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When you have a challenge and the response is equal to the challenge, that's called 'success'. But once you have a new challenge, the old, once-successful response no longer works. That's why it is called a 'failure'.
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If you want small changes in your life, work on your attitude. But if you want big and primary changes, work on your paradigm.
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Quality relationships are built on principles, especially the principle of trust.
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All things are created twice. All things. Vision is the first creation. For a house it's called the blueprint. For a life it's called a mission. For a day it's called a goal and a plan. For a parent it's called a belief in the unseen potential of a child. For all, it is the mental creation which always precedes the physical, or second, creation.
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To receive gratitude with grace is a form of gratitude by itself, and not always an easy art to master.
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But until a person can say deeply and honestly, "I am what I am today because of the choices I made yesterday," that person cannot say, "I choose otherwise.
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If I were to summarize in one sentence the single most important principle I have learned in the field of interpersonal relations, it would be this: Seek first to understand, then to be understood. This principle is the key to effective interpersonal communication.
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The most effective way I know to begin with the end in mind is to develop a personal mission statement or philosophy or creed. It focused on what you want to be (character) and to do (contributions and achievements) and on the values or principles upon which being and doing are based.
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Involve people in the problem and work out the solution together.
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Listen to your conscience regarding something that you simply know you should do, then start small on it - make a promise and keep it. Then move forward and make a little larger promise and keep it. Eventually you'll discover that your sense of honor will become greater than your moods, and that will give you a level of confidence and excitement that you can move to other areas where you feel you need to make improvements or give service.
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Our ultimate freedom is the right and power to decide how anybody or anything outside ourselves will affect us.
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Principles always have natural consequences attached to them. There are positive consequences when we live in harmony with the principles. There are negative consequences when we ignore them. But because these principles apply to everyone, whether or not they are aware, this limitation is universal. And the more we know of correct principles, the greater is our personal freedom to act wisely.
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People behave more on the basis of how they feel than how they think; unless there are good feelings between people, it is almost impossible to reason intelligently.
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If I really want to improve my situation, I can work on the one thing over which I have control - myself.
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'Efficient' scheduling and control of time are often counterproductive. The efficiency focus creates expectations that clash with the opportunities to develop rich relationships, to meet human needs, and to enjoy spontaneous moments on a daily basis.
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You can't change the fruit without changing the root.
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If you don't set your goals based upon your Mission Statement, you may be climbing the ladder of success only to realize, when you get to the top, you're on the WRONG building.
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By centering our lives on correct principles and creating a balanced focus between doing and increasing our ability to do, we become empowered to the task of creating effective useful and peaceful lives.
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You can say you love someone - but unless you demonstrate that love through your actions, your words become meaningless.
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Communication is the most important single activity of man.
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Want balance in your life? Then sure, get your own act together, but don't forget four powerful disciplines of execution in your team and organization.