Summary of the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People

lIn “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People,” Stephen Covey helps people become more effective when dealing with the significant challenges of life. In details, Stephen Covey provides guidelines for managing time and balancing studies, social life, job, and other priorities. The first three habits are focused on personal victories. They teach how to develop self-mastery and dependence. Those three habits are: Be Proactive, Begin with the End in Mind, and Put First Things First. Habits four, five, and six address interdependence, the success in working with others. Habit four: Think Win-Win, habit five: Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood, and habit six: Synergize. The seventh habit: Sharpen the Saw, talks about building one’s personal production capability through self-renewal and continual improvement. After reading this book, I was encouraged to think about what I can do to develop myself and become the best of me. Therefore, I have decided to take the following steps to improve myself: improve my communication and teamwork skills; keep myself focused on what matters the most; be being proactive; and take the time to renew myself and nurture my body, mind, heart, and spirit. My first recommendation to myself is to improve my communication and teamwork skills. Habit four: Think Win-Win and habit six: Synergize, made me realize the importance of teamwork. Habit four taught me that teamwork and long-term relationships require cooperation by seeking mutual benefit. For every problem, there exists a solution that allows everyone to succeed. According to the book, most people learn to base their self-esteem on comparisons and competition with others. They regard their success as the failure of someone else. If they win, others lose. Other people are the opposite. They think if they lose, others win. They accept loss just to make other people happy. People with such mentalities, find it hard to share the recognition and power of others. They cannot be