Stephen Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People Personal Response: After reading this book I have ended with a whole new mindset and perspective of thinking and interacting with others. Stephen’s personal experiments and knowledge has pulled in a lot of valuable wealth into this book making it a great source of knowledge for many who wish to be highly effective people. It outlays the individuality of people through their underlying perceptions, actions and characteristics and how we should look at using these qualities to manage and create effective people both within ourselves and others. I can honestly say that Stephen Covey’s narration has created somewhat of a personality shift within me and will have reoccurring messages within my mind within my professional and social life. The message conveyed within this book has made a significant impact on my leading and following skills when communicating or listening with others around me and has changed my perspective on valuing people’s individual contributions and status. The introduction of the book on “paradigms” has allowed me to see a great reflection of my life within university and at work. How Stephen emphasises reality and values as two different maps within individuals as separate paradigms and how our experiences effect our actions struck a note with me and allowed me to reflect on my actions based on what I see as reality and what I should be. My initial self-reflection at this point of the book showed me how powerful it was and I had already begun my shift on personality. I was able to see that I was too busy looking at the reality of life and how people wanted me to be within my personal and professional life that I had forgotten my own understanding of the type of person I would like to be. My personality had become ridged I saw myself as a box with straightforward thinking and logical processes. This could have been due to my education as an engineer and career in the field. I did not know how to think outside the box and value the variability of life that I would have liked to see and develop into and never questioned it till this point. Stephen Covey’s statement really emphasises this point: “We simply assume that the way we see things is the way they really are or the way they should be.” The self-reflection I begun continued through the concepts introduced at the beginning by Stephen. It was amazing to see how accurately he was targeting these concepts such as paradigms, growth and change and “a new level of thinking”. I could not help but to immerse myself with these concepts and sit there to think of how my own perception and growth was incorrect if I wanted to be not only a leader but also an effective person. I have understood that I actually try to take the shortcuts in life to try and be somewhere of something that I am not without actually taking the hard road of constructive development to achieve that desired state. Maybe this could also be a reflection of my paradigm and experiences and where it has taken me or is it a habit that I have developed overtime? This could be a question I should ponder on and ask myself further. What I do understand after reading these sections is that I do fundamentally need to change my attitude on the way I try develop myself and be effective to myself and others around me. A quote frompage 18 which Stephen conveyed really summed this point for me and struck me:“The answers are obvious. It is simply impossible to violate, ignore, or shortcut this development process. It is contrary to nature, and attempting to seek such a shortcut only results in disappointment and frustration.” In my opinion, Stephen Covey’s introductory to this book by outlining such concepts is really a point where people can self-reflect and see where they are as individuals, see where their baseline is in life whether it be ones; personality, development, thinking, characteristics, reality and dreams. The explanation of the 7 habits are then seen as guides to improve on that baseline and become that effective person that can lead, influence and create a positive outcome on not only the individuals life but those of others as well. My point of view at this section of the book was as described and I had much time to judge myself and where I stand. I was hoping that the 7 habits would assist in guiding me with my self-development and changing me to desired paradigm that I had forgotten about and could not achieve up this point of my life. The realisation that the social, family and work life I was surrounded in having such an effect on my perceptions and growth allowed me to see a deeper meaning to this book and understand the true essence of its message. I was on a path of change after this point, I could see it by the way I thought and acted about real life experiences I encountered after reading to this section of the book. As I began to read through the “habits” described by Stephen, in the book, I felt a sense of relief and also realisation. My opinion, stated above, was somewhat true and the habits where applicable and conveyed in depth. I could read through the ideas and see how my “desired” paradigm was shifting to a new end state that I would like to achieve. I knew that I had an “effective” target to get to and the principle, or a Stephen states it “the foundations”, to get to that target where now with me. The step beyond this point was to break down the pressures brought onto me by reality and shift myself to become an effective person, whether I am a leader or subordinate. I had always thought of myself as a proactive person until I read and understood the definition and understanding of the word from the book. A simple quote, from page 35 of the ‘7 Habits of Highly Effective People’, by Stephen really changed my perception of being proactive: “It means that as human beings, we are responsible for our own lives. Our behaviour is a function of our decisions, not our conditions. We can subordinate feelings to values. We have the initiative and the responsibility to make things happen.” I realised that I needed to be truly proactive and not let my conditions, and of that around me, dictate me and deter me from “making things happen”. I was a reactive person in nature, and again coming back to Stephen’s explanation of paradigms, I never questioned my situation. This understanding has really changed my attitude at home, university and work. I have actually started to be more proactive than reactive and this will hopefully get better at time goes on. My more proactive nature was allowing me to take initiatives for example; I finally got started with renovating parts of my house which I had been holding off for a few years and I took up the challenge of becoming a chartered engineer and I am currently in the process of finalising my application. These acts really showed me how I was so deeply moved by Stephen’s message and that my personality was changing towards being more effective. I was beginning to manage the issues around me, whether it be at home or work and I was trying to apply quality in my work and had actually received positive feedback from my manager on my efforts at creating the first draft for a document that has never been used within Sydney for rail. It was exciting to see these changes in my life and I am seriously thinking of taking up Stephen’s 30 day challenge on testing the principle of proactivity. I guess with my self-reflections and positive attitude to shifting my understanding and application of being proactive has allowed me to visualise an end state in mind and put pieces of the puzzle in my life together. I can now definitely say that I will be a manager and I will be proactive in attaining that goal. This is my end state this is what I want to create and make sure that my skills simplify the path without taking shortcuts and successfully developing myself. As long as I maintain clarity on my vision without being distracted, I am certain that I can achieve it. I guess I can certainly say now that there is a purpose of me entering into a masters of engineering management. Initially I begun the course telling myself that it would be good to have but now I can use it a leverage to gain that end goal. “By keeping that end clearly in mind, you can make certain that whatever you do on any particular day does not violate the criteria you have defined as supremely important, and that each day of your life contributes in a meaningful way to the vision you have of your life as a whole.” – Stephen Covey, ‘The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People’, Page 47. Having completed a sub major in Civil Engineering and undertaking a masters in Engineering Management, I really thought of myself as a well disciplined person. I think I am still today and it is my discipline that motivates me to accomplish what I have till today. However, having lacked, being proactive and having an end goal in mind I did not see feel that I gave me motivation. How could it? I had no true end goal. However, as stated above, I had finally developed a goal and now my discipline seemed to motivate me and make me do this things and think of doing thinks that maybe otherwise I would not have done. Page 76 in the ‘7 habits of highly effective people’ iterates this by stating: “if you are an effective manager of your self, your discipline comes from within; it is a function of your independent will….The successful person has the habit of doing the things failures don't like to do”. I really hope that this sense of motivation will allow me to have more integrity, control my moods and opinions and I also believe that this will add to simplifying the path to my final goal. After reading a good portion of the book, which I enjoyed greatly, I could see many pieces of the puzzle coming together. How am I to be an effective person? I guess it begins with the will to change and when changing making sure that all the lessons learnt above are incorporated. I knew that my will to change had already started because as I read I could see how much everything Stephen was describing made sense and how much I related to the ideas conveyed. I guess I initially put my engineering hat on to find reason and logic but then realised, as mentioned previously, it was sometimes not the most applicable. I had begun doing things I had been putting off for a long time and was being more cautious and tactical and proactive not only at work but also in my personal life and this was all thanks to some of the messages I took in from reading Stephan Covey’s book ‘The 7 habits of highly effective people’. Maybe I am reiterating what I have stated earlier in this paragraph, however; I feel the need to convey this again and not only show its effects on my but also reiterate to me how it has affected me. Another aspect of Stephen Covey’s book was the emphasis he gave on listening and understanding the person(s) across from you to better understand them, thus allowing one to be a more effective person through persuasion. When I look at myself I know that my listening skills are not great. I often rudely cut people off because I might know the answer or maybe because I get over excited. In any case I know now that I am not listening to the people across from me and understanding them to the full extent. This has greatly affected me in my professional and social life and I aim at changing it. Maybe I can control it through discipline, as stated above, which might allow me to control my emotions and thus listen to the full message being conveyed across from me. It was also interesting to see how Stephen stated that no human has training in listening and that it is created from an individual’s own “frame of reference”, which seems to me that it will take me some time to perfect my listening skills. Page 121 of “the 7 habits of highly effective people” sums my thoughts up with the following statement: “If you want to interact effectively with me, to influence me -- your spouse, your child, your neighbour, your boss, your co-worker, your friend -- you first need to understand me.” Furthermore, I believe that the shift in my paradigm and personality that begun with the reading of this book, I believe will turn me into a person who will listen to understand rather than a person who listens to reply. This was an important point which I took from Stephen Covey, which stated: “Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply. They're either speaking or preparing to speak. They're filtering everything through their own paradigms”. In summary, there is so much one could write about this book and how it has affected them on a mental and physical way. The ideas and detailed discussions presented by Stephen are amazing; he has surely collated much information for people to truly understand how we can become truly effective people in our lives. The word effectiveness to me does not only mean in leadership however in a general sense that can be applied in several situations in one’s life. I have learnt so much from this book in terms of a humans psyche and how it affects your habits which in turn has impact on your effectiveness as a person. The self-reflections and realisations I gained from this book really helped me to shift my paradigms and introduce new or improved habits into my world of truth. If I have to be truthfully I was really doubtful about reading this book at first, thinking it would be another one of those typical “key to success” type books. When I began to read and understand and saw how the ideas applied to my own life, it seemed more like a guide and I saw myself as the “key to success”. There is no magical formula or word, it is through effective habits, self-realisation and knowing where one wants to be without being affected by the reality around them. This is the true key to success and I will hopefully apply this concept within my professional and social life.