"The 7 Habits..." - Gems from part one

(Mainly for me to remember and to share with my missionary brother this week.)

This is a GREAT book (Stephen Covey's "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People"). He's such a wise person, expanding on and yet simplifying so many gospel truths in a way that is accessible to anyone and so obviously applicable. Great stuff in here. Here are my favorite parts from part one (which I am really not doing justice to in this summary - Covey's overall way of explaining is so much better than the dry skimming I'm putting out here):

"Show me someone who is humble enough to accept and take responsibility for his or her circumstances and courageous enough to take whatever initiative is necessary to creatively work his or her way through or around these challenges, and I'll show you the supreme power of choice." This reminds me of something Victor Frankl (Holocaust survivor) said: "Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom." Later on Covey describes interdependence (I'll get to it) and it makes so much sense of the problem of agency and learning and being acted upon or not being acted upon. Our circumstances do affect us, but I love Frankl's focus on the space between stimulus and response, and the opportunity for growth and freedom within that space.

Covey explains that as part of his job he was able to review all of the U.S. "self-help" books written over the last 200 years or so. He noticed that in the last 50 years there was a change in focus from character based success books to personality based success books - a focus more on skill than on inner character. He acknowledges the value of skills but argues that without the foundation of who a person is, the skills will not resolve deep relationship or life problems. He discusses the fact that there are principles involving our work and relationships that are fundamental to life and cannot be changed, that they are natural laws that can't be broken, and quotes The Ten Commandments director Cecil B. Moore - "It is impossible for us to break the law. We can only break ourselves against the law."

He talks about changing our paradigm or ways of thinking and quotes Albert Einstein: "The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them."

The breaking of habits was compared to the lunar voyage of Apollo 11. More energy was spent in the first few minutes of lift-off, to break out of the gravity pull of the earth, than was used in the next half a million miles. Covey says " 'Lift off' takes a tremendous effort, but once we break out of the gravity pull, our freedom takes on a while new dimension."

Dependence, Independence, and Interdependence defined: "On the maturity continuum, dependence  is the paradigm of you--you  take care of me....Independence is the paradigm of I--I can do it....Interdependence is the paradigm of we...." Interdependence is the highest goal and sounds like the learned requirement for Celestial relationships. "If I am emotionally interdependent, I derive a great sense of worth within myself, but I also recognize the need for love, for giving, and for receiving love from others."

The P/PC (Production / Production Capacity) Balance. Covey relates the fable of the goose who laid golden eggs. The farmer, who got a golden egg each day, got impatient and wanted all of the eggs at once, so he killed the goose only to find no eggs inside and that he had killed the source future eggs. We must balance our own golden eggs (products in whatever ways that means - financial, "getting stuff done," etc.) with keeping our capacity to produce maintained and healthy, so that more golden eggs can be produced in the future. This is the quest of effectiveness he says. Related to business, Covey says: "PC work [maintaining future production capacity] is treating employees as volunteers just as you treat customers as volunteers, because that's what they are. They volunteer the best part--their hearts and minds....A person's...heart is where his enthusiasm, his loyalty is....his brain...[is] where his creativity is, his ingenuity, his resourcefulness."

This section ends with Thomas Paine: "That which we obtain too easily, we esteem too lightly. It is dearness only which gives everything its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price on its goods."