The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People Book Summary Part- 2 (First Three Habits Summary)

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey Book Summary Part-1 ( First Three Habits Summary)

Alright guys welcome to part two of these seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey if you haven't Read the first part go ahead and click on the link here. So you can see the first three habits in the first three habits you move from being a dependent to an independent person by being proactive beginning with the end in mind and putting first things first the first three habits are about self mastery they help you become more effective as an individual by developing inner strength character purpose and values the next three habits are I'm going to cover in this video move you from being independent to being interdependent again interdependence is the highest level of what Stephen Covey calls the maturity continuum the maturity continuum consists of three levels dependence independence and interdependence.

Dependence is like the relationship between M child and a mother or even sometimes between a boss and employee it's the attitude of you to move from dependence to independence you have to nail the first three habits again be proactive begin with the end in mind and put first things first this is the attitude of I and then you have the next level which is interdependence this is where you're thinking like a team you know a family and a teamwork mentality we accomplish what we want together it's the attitude of we. we can combine our different talents and our abilities to make something even greater habits four through six help you deal with people teach you how to read the needs and empathize and cooperate with people they help you build strong relationships.

Habit four is think win-win there are six types of personal and business relationships there's lose win and win lose which is the typical mentality for most in order for me to win you have to lose this is the mindset of someone is going to get the good end of the deal and someone is going to get screwed this is a poor mindset to have but people live with this outlook because most people have a scarcity mindset they have a lack of abundance mindset there's also the lose-lose relationship which of course is no good for anybody and I have a quick example for this one. I had a friend who got divorced and he was about to retire from the military instead of retiring and getting a pension which half of it would go to his wife he got out at 19 year got no pension in this case they both lost out then you have the win and this is not really a relationship at all. This is you just getting what you want and not providing value to anyone else and it's pretty much just selfish.

Next there is no deal this one's pretty much neutral if you can't come to a deal where you both benefit then there's no deal and then we come to the best type of relationship which is a win-win we want to look for win-win relationships we want to search for mutual benefit and we need to have the mindset that there's plenty out there there's abundance we can share knowledge we can gain we can profit together we don't need to crush each other out we can work together instead life isn't a zero-sum game so look at every situation with a win-win mentality a quick example of a win-win is hey I buy a book for $20 and I get all this insight and knowledge and the author also benefits by getting 20 bucks so again seek win-win relationships if it's not gonna be mutually beneficial than default to No Deal.

Habit 5 is seek first to understand then to be understood Stephen tells a great story here Stephen and his son have a talk and Stephen can't get through to his son about some issue they're having he then goes to a friend for advice he tells a friend I just can't understand my son sometimes he won't listen to me the friend says hold on a second let me get this straight you can't understand your son because he won't listen to you I thought that to understand someone you have to listen to them. That's a great point isn't it for us to understand someone we have to listen to them not the other way around. It's common sense really but most of the time this is how our relationships play out. 

We often get mad at people because they don't think the way we think we all see the world differently we all see the world through our own perceptions and opinions based on our own experiences you can't understand someone unless you really listen to them try to understand their perspective first try to understand how they're feeling why this is called emphatic listening. 

This is the highest level of listening the others being ignoring pretending to listen selective hearing and attentive listening none of those are very effective but most of us listen using one of these levels most people don't listen with the intent to understand we listen with the intent to reply before the other person even finishes so before you judge before you take action before you contribute just listen so if your wife says I hate my job instead of providing advice or repeating what she said which is a typical response you rephrase the content and reflect the feeling and say something like you're not enjoying your job and you're feeling upset about it this gets you both on the same side of the table you're listening with the intent to understand intellectually and emotionally and then you can move forward to repair the situation. The time to be understood is when the conversation leads to logic and advice is requested when you go down this path maybe she'll eventually respond with should I look for another job. 

This is when you can seek to be understood this is when you can provide your advice but if it goes back to an emotional level then you listen again em-pathetically until logic is brought back this creates an atmosphere of caring. 

Habit six is synergy the idea behind this is that different people bring different opinions ideas perspectives and strengths to the table instead of simply tolerating or accepting these differences we should celebrate them we should value these differences this is what any good CEO does they get their different subject matter experts and get their input to come up with the best solution another way to think of synergy is when you put two pieces of wood together one piece of wood by itself isn't that strong but when you put two together the overall strength increases by more than two times with synergy one plus one can equal three ten or a hundred think of how individual units can work together to create something even bigger another example is the human body there are many individual parts that are amazing in their own right but all the parts together create something amazing so again habits four through six deal with relationships these three habits can help you have effective and interdependent relationships with others the last habit. 

Habit 7 is to sharpen the saw let's say you see a guy cutting down a tree with a dull saw you say hey why don't you sharpen that thing it's gonna take six hours at this rate he says I don't have time to sharpen I have to cut this tree down you explain if you spend one hour sharpening that saw it'll only take you three hours to cut down the tree you don't have time not to sharpen the saw this example can be applied to our lives on many different planes we are the instruments and we have to regularly sharp in four areas and these areas fall into quadrant two activities.

Physical find the importance of it again it's not urgent but it's important you can have the exercise and feel good now or pay for it in thirty years when you're in hospital with all kinds of physical ailments that you could have avoided the next area spiritual you know ask yourself contemplate Who am I where am I going meditate prayer music art and so on the next one is cognitive health continue to learn to explore to expand educate yourself immerse yourself in another culture teach others and the fourth one is social health this is relationships living interdependently spending time with family or friends.

With all four of these areas think continuous improvement we must continually renew ourselves and the best way to unleash your future potential is by investing invest in yourself strive for continuous learning and improvement doing so renews each of the other habits as well this habit keeps you fresh so you can handle the other six habits make these seven habits a part of your life don't just attempt to understand them intellectually try to live them apply these habits and teach them to others because the best way to learn is by teaching it to someone else this is a lifelong process that requires patience it's not a quick fix it won't happen overnight and it will be a challenge as you continue down the path you'll hit obstacles and you'll fall back a time or two but this is necessary old habits will pull you down but don't give up keep pushing yourself and you'll hit new heights and levels of effectiveness as you progress be open to self-discovery and be open minded that's it guys I hope you enjoy these articles if you did please give it a like and Share and follow my blog for more similar articles.  

Here is link below for Part 1 of this Summary.
https://blackbookreviewclub.blogspot.com/2019/10/the-7-habits-of-highly-effective-people_17.html