Stephen Covey Quotes
-
Sacrifice really means giving up something good for something better.
-
Fulfilling the four needs in an integrated way is like combining elements in chemistry. When we reach a "critical mass" of integration, we experience spontaneous combustion - an explosion of inner synergy that ignites the fire within and gives vision, passion, and a spirit of adventure to life.
-
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?
-
Be a light, not a judge, be a model not a critic. Little by little, your circle of influence will explode and you will avoid the emotional metastasizing cancers of complaining, criticizing, competing, comparing and cynicism, all which reflect victimization, all of which are the opposite of being proactive.
-
Effective communication is built on the cement of trust. And trust is based on trustworthiness, not politics.
-
When you really listen to another person from their point of view, and reflect back to them that understanding, it's like giving them emotional oxygen.
-
I win the private victory when I have made my mind up and commit to live by correct principles and to serve worthy purposes.
-
Spiritual Intelligence represents our drive for meaning and connection with the infinite.
-
When your happiness comes primarily from the happiness of others, you know you have moved from a 'me' experience to a 'we' experience. And the whole problem-solving and opportunity-seizing process changes.
-
The only thing that endures over time is the 'Law of the Farm.' You must prepare the ground, plant the seed, cultivate, and water if you expect to reap the harvest.
-
We must not let the actions or words of others determine our responses. Magnanimous people make the choice to respond to the indignities of others based upon their own principles and their own value system rather than their moods or anger.
-
But with the steady disintegration of the family in modern society over the last century, the role of the school in bridging the gap has become vital!
-
The problems in life come when we're sowing one thing and expecting to reap something entirely different.
-
The creative process is also the most terrifying part because you don't know exactly what's going to happen or where it is going to lead. You don't know what new dangers and challenges you'll find. It takes an enormous amount of internal security to begin with the spirit of adventure, discovery, and creativity. Without doubt, you have to leave the comfort zone of base camp and confront an entirely new and unknown wilderness.
-
We exhaust ourselves more from the tension and the consequences of internal disharmony than from hard, unremitting work.
-
Interdependency follows independence.
-
Your systems are perfectly designed to get the results that you are getting.
-
Trust is the glue that holds everything together. It creates the environment in which all of the other elements win-win stewardship agreements, self-directing individuals and teams, aligned structures and systems, and accountability can flourish.
-
To me, the essence of keeping the soul nourished is obedience to one's conscience. I don't think that the soul can be nourished unless people have a strong sense of conscience that they have educated and developed and soaked in the universal and timeless principles of integrity and service. This way, the individual's soul becomes part of the universal soul of service, contribution, and making a difference.
-
Principles are the simplicity on the far side of complexity.
-
Many people seem to think that success in one area can compensate for failure in other areas. But can it really?... True effectiveness requires balance.
-
Always treat your employees exactly as you want them to treat your best customers. You can buy a person's hand, but you can't buy his heart; his heart is where his enthusiasm is. You can buy his back, but you can't buy his brain. That's where his creativity is. Treat employees as volunteers just as you treat customers as volunteers, because that's what they are. They volunteer the best parts - their hearts and minds.
-
People can't live with change if there's not a changeless core inside them.
-
Treat them all the same by treating them differently.