The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

I have heard about the book by Stephen R. Covey “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” pretty much my whole life but I have never read it. For class this week, I read a summary of it highlighting the 7 habits. The habits are  

1. Be Proactive – self starter

2. Begin with the end in mind – goals

3. First things first – stepping stones

4. Think Win/Win – everyone benefits

5. Seek to understand, then to be understood (what is winning to them)

6. Synergy – teamwork

7. Sharpen the saw – regroup

All these things equal trust. Trust in yourself and in others. As I was reading this, I realized that I was agreeing with all these points and realized that I have tried to implement all these habits in my life already. I have always tried to think win/win. I hate the feeling of doing something that makes someone else feel bad or that their ideas weren’t valued. I love the sense of teamwork and collaborating all our ideas to come up with something that everyone is happy with. On my mission I tried to always understand people, because once I understood them, I could better teach to their needs.

Something that I noticed while I was reading this was the quote “Reactive people are swept away by the heat of the moment. Proactive people are driven by values that are both well thought out and internalized.” I see a lot of reactive people on social media getting carried away in the heat of the moment. Everyone tends to be a wordsmith to defend themselves, but I rarely see anyone apologizing or being genuinely interested in what others have to say even if they don’t agree. I rarely engage in social media banter because it usually winds up being supercharged with reactive comments. I like the quote from the book, “It is not what happens that is important. It is our responses to whatever happens that makes all the difference.” In the Book of Mormon, when Christ comes to visit, His message is basically “Whatever you do, don’t fight or argue. If someone offends you, just smile and nod. And if they keep doing it, just keep smiling and nodding. Just. Don’t. Fight.” The message from the Apostles and Prophet is basically the same, root out contention and don’t engage in harmful conversations on social media.

So I appreciate reading this summary of the book because it helped pinpoint what I have been feeling and doing pretty much my whole life, and I know now that I am on the right path.

Always Put The Lord First

 Lately, I have been feeling a bit stretched with everything going on. Since Christmas is on Sunday this year, I couldn’t not do something for church. So, I decided to spearhead a Christmas Sunday Musical Program. After I started putting it together, I was wondering why I even started it. It was very time consuming, and I had to talk to a lot of people to see if they’d like to participate. Of course, there were people who said no, or dropped out, which meant I had to rearrange things and ask more people. And I have school on top of all of everything! Right now, it has slowed down a bit because everything seems to be in place.

I was reading in my class today, and a man by the name of Jan Newman gave a speech and he said that in life, you have to crunch things, your job, your family, your calling. Some things get more attention than others. But, he said, “Don’t ever be too busy to take a calling in the church. If you ever tell your Bishop “Hey I’ve got this new company and it’s a lot of work and I don’t think I can be the Scoutmaster….biggest mistake you’ll ever make. Because when you need the Lord’s help, he’ll know where you heart is and it won’t be on his side.”

As I was reading this, I was thinking about my crazy idea to start a choir and put together an hour-long program for church. By myself. I know being the choir pianist or music chairperson isn’t my calling, but it is my calling in life to share my musical talent. And no one else was willing to put this together. I feel like this is my way of showing my love for Jesus Christ, to sing praises to Him for Christmas. I hope that this Christmas program can bring the spirit to everyone who attends church on Christmas Sunday.

Here's the thing too, even though I have so much going on with school and the Christmas program (and I’m even starting to write a children’s book!), and my family, I feel like I have had enough time to do everything. Nothing has been neglected in my life. I feel like Heavenly Father is sustaining me with everything because of my righteous desires.

Perseverance: entrepreneurial success isn't about money; it's about freedom

I started reading the book “Mastery” by George Leonard, and in the first part of the book he talks about how we are all born geniuses, which means we can do things that computers can’t. Then he goes on to talk about how the caveman idea downplays humans. He says, “We are capable of creating complex, well knit social groupings, a challenge which, more than tool making, accounts for the development of the large brain.” (pg 13) It also downplays the human body. If we were to compete athletically against animals, humans would have the overall score. I found this so fascinating because the world tries to tell you that we are animals, but this proves that we are so much more. Humans were designed to think and reason and develop. I have never believed in the caveman theory because I have always believed humans to be intelligent. And this book just proved what I have been thinking all along.

We have also been learning about mastery and perseverance. I read that it takes you 10,000 times to master something. That would be like playing a piano piece 10,000 times before it was mastered. I have been playing piano for 27 years and I doubt I have played anything 10,000 times. But the more you do it, the closer you get to those 10,000 times, and I am still young yet. This is what perseverance is, doing it again and again. The Secret is to stay the course, day after day, year after year. Here is a quote that I like from one of the articles I read in class this week:

“Entrepreneurs become successful, one small investment at a time, in a never-ending process. Because entrepreneurial success isn’t a destination, it’s a journey. A journey taken one determined step at a time, in a way that builds lifelong treasures.”

Another quote I like is:

“Entrepreneurial success isn’t about money; it’s about freedom. The goal isn’t to make more money than you need, it’s to spend less that you make. Because that way your free time belongs to you.”

These are great reminders for me that great success is a lifelong journey…and to keep my focus on people instead of material things. Money comes and goes, but your relationship with people lasts forever.

Core Values

I finished the book Launching Leaders this week and had to write a book report on it. The book was very inspirational and informational. I would recommend it too just about anyone. I was thinking this book would have been very beneficial for me as a young adult. I really had no direction or confidence in myself. This book is like one long pep talk!

The book also talked about how to set up your bank account with one checking account and 3 savings accounts. One of those savings accounts should be for investing. John is so smart; he has already implemented these principles for our bank account. I don’t know if we are ahead of the game, but at least we have something started.

We also talked about core values for our life. All throughout the book Launching Leaders, it talks about aligning ourselves with God’s will. I feel this very close to my heart. I have always tried to do His will and to follow the prompting I get. We watched General Conference this week as well, and I was thinking about how all the Apostles and Prophets were very successful in their careers. I heard them talk and testify of Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, and I was thinking, every day of their career they put God first. I have met lots of people of prominence and most of them have made me feel inferior and like they were the best. But the Apostles and Prophets must have been more service oriented than a salesman or an academic genius. They probably talked about the Book of Mormon with a lot of their colleagues and maybe even their clients. They most likely did not separate God from their workplace. I was thinking about my future career and if I was going to be like these rich, powerful men who doesn’t care about anyone, or will I try to be like the Apostles and Prophets and be humble and service minded. I want it to be the latter, and that is why my first core value is to put God first. Everything else will follow.