Dr. Stephen R. Covey published a book that was all the rage a few years ago. His book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People outline seven traits found in all effective people. In order to see these habits one must undergo a paradigm shift, which is seeing through the eyes of others.

A perfect example of a paradigm shift is the story of a subway ride. Covey told the lecture group to "Picture yourself on a quiet subway ride home. Everyone is quiet there are several people sleeping while others are reading. At the next stop a man gets on with some children. The children are very disruptive throwing things running into people, just kids behaving rottenly. You turn and say to the man 'your children are being disruptive maybe you could do something to control them.' Then the man turns and says 'we just came from the hospital their mother just died and I guess they don't know how to handle it, neither do I.' and right away you feel bad for the man. Most people would want to know what they could do to help." In order to improve on the seven habits one must undergo a paradigm shift.

When you first look at the title you might ask what is meant by effective? Well Covey defin

Finally Covey speaks of the most important habit "Sharpening the Saw." Two lumberjacks are sawing down a tree. They are working very hard almost to the point of exhaustion when a man walks by and says, "why don't you sharpen that saw" the two reply "No Time!" covey says that you must have time to renew yourself in four areas: physical, social, mental, and spiritual. Time must be allotted so that one doesn't ignore any of these areas, because one needs all four of these areas in order to be effective.

The next habits deal with personality. Covey starts this group with "Think Win Win or No Deal." Instead of making compromises you should look for solutions where everyone gets what they want. Simple logic says that this is the only way that life can operate, especially for customers and stores. If a solution that benefits everyone can't be found then you should simply agree to disagree.

Covey said that all the literature dealt with character ethics or personality ethics separately. Coveys theory deals with both types of ethics at the same time. He uses the iceberg analogy to describe the relation between character and personality. The Small part of the iceberg above the water line is the personality while the character is the large mass hidden under the water. If you just change the personality with you will in time drift away from yourself.

Being response able goes against any type determinism. The three types of determinism are genetic psychic and environmental. Genetic determinism is "my grandparents did it to me," psychic is "my parents did it to me," and environmental is " (fill in the blank) did it to me." Determinism is a way to move the blame of oneself; people who believe in determinism believe they have no control over anything. These people confuse liberty and freedom. Liberty is a condition of the environment, while freedom is a condition of the self.

es by using the P/PC balance. The PC in this fraction stands for production capability of something that one desires while P stands for what is actually produced. In order for one to be effective o

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