Last week while I was scrolling through my tweeter feeds, one of the tweets caught my attention – It said Stephen Covey had died.
I immediately looked up at my book shelf and saw the book “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” …I started to gather the “7 Habits” in my mind.
Stephen Covey, the management guru was a master story teller and one of the top motivational and inspirational figure of this century. His books taught us to dig within ourselves and bring out our true inner potential and self confidence.
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People has sold over 20 million copies in more than 38 languages world wide, truly powerful lessons in personal change.
Some of his other successful books are The 8th Habit, First Things, First and The 3rd Alternative. Not only were his books motivational, his quotes were also highly inspirational.
Below are 25 Highly Effective and Inspirational quotes by Stephen Covey.
1. “Each of us tends to think we see things as they are, that we are objective. But this is not the case. We see the world, not as it is, but as we are – or as we are conditioned to see it.”
2. “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.”
3. “Seek first to understand, then to be understood.”
4. “Don’t argue for other people’s weaknesses. Don’t argue for your own. When you make a mistake, admit it, correct it, and learn from it–immediately.”
5. “Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply.”
6. “Every human has four endowments- self awareness, conscience, independent will and creative imagination. These give us the ultimate human freedom… The power to choose, to respond, to change.”
7. “Happiness can be defined, in part at least, as the fruit of the desire and ability to sacrifice what we want now for what we want eventually.”
8. “If you’re proactive, you don’t have to wait for circumstances or other people to create perspective expanding experiences. You can consciously create your own.”
9. “We are free to choose our actions, . . . but we are not free to choose the consequences of these actions.”
10. “Live out of your imagination, not your history.”
11. “I think the most significant work we’ll do in our whole life, in our whole world is done within the four walls of our home.”
12. “Most of us spend too much time on what is urgent and not enough time on what is important.”
13. “I am not a product of my circumstances. I am a product of my decisions.”
14. “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.”
15. “You can’t talk your way out of a problem you behaved your way into!”
16. “Our character is basically a composite of our habits. Because they are consistent, often unconscious patterns, they constantly, daily, express our character.”
17. “…to learn and not to do is really not to learn. To know and not to do is really not to know.”
18. “Without involvement, there is no commitment. Mark it down, asterisk it, circle it, underline it. No involvement, no commitment.”
19. “Management works in the system. Leadership works on the system.”
20. “Between stimulus and response, one has the freedom to choose.”
21. “Begin with the end in mind.”
22. “Effective people are not problem-minded; they’re opportunity minded. They feed opportunities and starve problems.”
23. “Paradigms are powerful because they create the lens through which we see the world.”
24. “One of the best ways to educate our hearts is to look at our interaction with other people, because our relationships with others are fundamentally a reflection of our relationship with ourselves.”
25. “Admission of ignorance is often the first step in our education.”
Bonus quote and my favorite – “The main thing is to keep the main thing, the main thing.”
Have you read any of Stephen Covey’s books, which is your favorite Covey quote
Have a Happy Sunday and a Great Week Ahead 🙂
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