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An Abundance Mentality Springs From Internal Security, Not From External Rankings, Comparisons, Opinions, Possessions, Or Associations.
-Stephen Covey
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An Abundance Mentality Springs

Stephen Covey
...
An Abundance Mentality Springs From Internal Security, Not From External Rankings, Comparisons, Opinions, Possessions, Or Associations.

Understanding the Quote: "an abundance mentality springs from internal security, not from external rankings, comparisons,..."

This quote by Stephen Covey reflects deeply on the theme of spring. It connects to the universal human journey of purpose, motivation, and reflection. Often categorized under Spring, Association, Abundance Mentality, the quote offers insight, emotional clarity, and intellectual inspiration to readers worldwide.

Whether you’re a student exploring new ideas, a leader trying to motivate your team, or someone seeking direction in life — this quote provides value. It resonates because it’s more than words — it’s a bridge between experience and wisdom. It shows how Stephen Covey interprets life's core challenges and triumphs.

Lessons From the Quote

This quote teaches resilience and focus. It reminds readers that no matter where they stand in life, reflection and self-awareness lead to growth. Each word has meaning, and when studied, it becomes clear how impactful thoughtful language can be.

About Stephen Covey

Stephen Covey is celebrated for insightful thoughts on spring and association. Their legacy lives on through writings that guide, comfort, and inspire. Discover more on their profile page.

Actionable Takeaways

  • Reflect on how this quote applies to your current life path.
  • Share the message with someone who needs inspiration.
  • Write your thoughts on this quote in a journal or blog post.
  • Use it as a daily affirmation or reminder.

Closing Thoughts

Quotes like this endure because they capture universal truths. They comfort us in solitude and empower us in groups. Carry this quote forward — live by its wisdom, share its message, and keep its essence alive.

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Topic
Spring
Association
Abundance Mentality
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The More Authentic You Become, The More Genuine In Your Expression, Particularly Regarding Personal Experiences And Even Self-doubts, The More People Can Relate To Your Expression And The Safer It Makes Them Feel To Express Themselves. That Expression, In Turn, Feeds On The Other Person's Spirit, And Genuine Creative Empathy Takes Place, Producing New Insights And Learnings And A Sense Of Excitement And Adventure That Keeps The Process Going.
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Trust Is The Glue That Holds Everything Together. It Creates The Environment In Which All Of The Other Elements Win-win Stewardship Agreements, Self-directing Individuals And Teams, Aligned Structures And Systems, And Accountability Can Flourish.
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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.
Change
Encouragement
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If I Really Want To Improve My Situation, I Can Work On The One Thing Over Which I Have Control-myself. I Can Stop Trying To Shape Up My Wife And Can Work On My Own Weaknesses. I Can Focus An Being A Great Marriage Partner, A Source Of Unconditional Love And Support. Hopefully, My Wife Will Feel The Power Of Proactive Example And Respond In Kind. But, Whether She Does Or Doesn't, The Most Positive Way I Can Influence My Situation Is To Work On Myself, On My Being.
Unconditional Love
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Wife
I Know It Is Possible Not Only To Restore Trust But To Actually Enhance It. The Difficult Things That We Got Through With The Important People In Our Lives Can Become Fertile Ground For The Growth Of Enduring Trust - Trust That Is Actually Stronger Because It's Been Tested And Proved Through Challenge.
Motivational
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You Can't Hold Someone Accountable For Results If You Supervise Their Methods.
Results
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Ifs
We Must Look At The Lens Through We See The World, As Well As The World We See, And That The Lens Itself Shapes How We Interpret The World.
Perception
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In Order To Have Influence, You Have To Be Influenced.
Leadership
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Conscience Connects Us With The Wisdom Of The Ages And The Wisdom Of The Heart.
Heart
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The First Principle Of Ethical Power Is Purpose. By Purpose, I Don't Mean Your Objective Or Intention-something Toward Which You Are Always Striving. Purpose Is Something Bigger. It Is The Picture You Have Of Yourself-the Kind Of Person You Want To Be Or The Kind Of Life You Want To Lead.
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If We Want To Make A Change In Our Lives, We Should First Focus On Our Personal Attitudes And Behaviors.
Attitude
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When You Study The Lives Of All Great Achievers-those Who Have Had The Greatest Influence On Others, Those Who Have Made Things Happen-you Will Find A Pattern. Through Their Persistent Efforts And Inner Struggle, They Have Greatly Expanded Their Four Native Human Intelligences Or Capacities. The Highest Manifestations Of These Four Intelligences Are: For Mental, Vision; For The Physical, Discipline; For The Emotional, Passion; For The Spiritual, Conscience. These Manifestations Also Represent Our Highest Means Of Expressing Our Voice.
Spiritual
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If You Want The Secondary Greatness Of Recognized Talent, Focus First On Primary Greatness Of Character.
Inspirational
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Begin Each Day With The Blueprint Of My Deepest Values Firmly In Mind Then When Challenges Come, Make Decisions Based On Those Values.
Decision
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The Bottom Line Is, When People Are Crystal Clear About The Most Important Priorities Of The Organization And Team They Work With And Prioritized Their Work Around Those Top Priorities, Not Only Are They Many Times More Productive, They Discover They Have The Time They Need To Have A Whole Life.
Life
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Effective People Stay Out Of Quadrants Iii And Iv Because, Urgent Or Not, They Aren't Important. They Also Shrink Quadrant I Down To Size By Spending More Time In Quadrant Ii...quadrant Ii Is The Heart Of Effective Personal Management.
Inspirational
Heart
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In Our Personal Lives, If We Do Not Develop Our Own Self-awareness And Become Responsible For First Creations, We Empower Other People And Circumstances To Shape Our Lives By Default.
Self
People
Empowering
Accountability Breeds Response-ability.
Inspirational
Motivational
Freedom
The Challenge Is Not To Manage Time, But To Manage Ourselves.
Time
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Principles Always Have Natural Consequences Attached To Them. There Are Positive Consequences When We Live In Harmony With The Principles. There Are Negative Consequences When We Ignore Them. But Because These Principles Apply To Everyone, Whether Or Not They Are Aware, This Limitation Is Universal. And The More We Know Of Correct Principles, The Greater Is Our Personal Freedom To Act Wisely.
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Without Trust, The Best We Can Do Is Compromise.
Compromise
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Find Your Voice, And Inspire Others To Find Theirs. Don't Ignore That Longing To Make A Difference.
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To Maintain The P/pc Balance, The Balance Between The Golden Egg (production) And The Health And Welfare Of The Goose (production Capability) Is Often A Difficult Judgment Call. But I Suggest It Is The Very Essence Of Effectiveness.
Essence
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Effectiveness
Peace Of Mind Comes When Your Life Is In Harmony With True Principles And Values And In No Other Way.
Mind
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We Simply Assume That The Way We See Things Is The Way They Really Are Or The Way They Should Be. And Our Attitudes And Behaviors Grow Out Of These Assumptions.
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The Universal Elements Are Integrity, Vision, Discipline, Passion, Governed By Conscience. Conscience Has Been Educated Through Studying And Pondering The Universal, Timeless Principles Of All Six Major World Religions.
Integrity
Passion
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Before A Performance, A Sales Presentation, A Difficult Confrontation, Or The Daily Challenge Of Meeting A Goal, See It Clearly, Vividly, Relentlessly, Over And Over Again. Create An Internal "comfort Zone". Then, When You Get Into The Situation, It Isn't Foreign. It Doesn't Scare You.
Goal
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Unless People Feel That They Are Accepted And That They Have A Right To Express Their Feelings Without Fear Of Embarrassment Or Ridicule, All They Will Do Is React And Rebel And Struggle For Their Identity.
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We Hear A Lot About Identity Theft When Someone Takes Your Wallet And Pretends To Be You And Uses Your Credit Cards. But The More Serious Identity Theft Is To Get Swallowed Up In Other People's Definition Of You.
People
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Cards
When I Started Teaching I Realized That I Had Never Had Such A Level Of Satisfaction And Such A Feeling Of Fulfillment And Sense Of Contribution. Just Like That. But, Usually It's More Cumulative, Slow, Evolutionary And Less Revolutionary.
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Paradigms Are Powerful Because They Create The Lens Through Which We See The World.
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In The Space Between Stimulus (what Happens) And How We Respond, Lies Our Freedom To Choose. Ultimately, This Power To Choose Is What Defines Us As Human Beings. We May Have Limited Choices But We Can Always Choose. We Can Choose Our Thoughts, Emotions, Moods, Our Words, Our Actions; We Can Choose Our Values And Live By Principles. It Is The Choice Of Acting Or Being Acted Upon.
Lying
Effectiveness
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The Roots Of The Problems We Face In The World, In Our National Life, And In Our Family And Personal Lives Are Spiritual.
Spiritual
Roots
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The Ability To Subordinate An Impulse To A Value Is The Essence Of The Proactive Person.
Impulse Control
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Self Control
As Human Beings, We Are Responsible For Our Own Lives. Our Behavior Is A Function Of Our Decisions, Not Our Conditions. We Can Subordinate Feelings To Values.
Decision
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Nothing Is As Fast As The Speed Of Trust. Nothing Is As Fulfilling As A Relationship Of Trust. Nothing Is As Inspiring As An Offering Of Trust. Nothing Is As Profitable As The Economics Of Trust. Nothing Has More Influence Than A Reputation Of Trust.
Offering
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The Key To The Ability To Change Is A Changeless Sense Of Who You Are, What You Are About And What You Value.
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I Am Not A Product Of My Circumstances. I Am A Product Of My Decisions.
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Stop Setting Goals. Goals Are Pure Fantasy Unless You Have A Specific Plan To Achieve Them.
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Independent Will Is Our Capacity To Act. It Gives Us The Power To Transcend Our Paradigms, To Swim Upstream, To Rewrite Our Scripts, To Act Based On Principle Rather Than Reacting Based On Emotion Or Circumstance.
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Without Exception, Empathy Is Always Appropriate.
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When You Have Too Many Top Priorities, You Effectively Have No Top Priorities.
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Character Grows In The Soil Of Experience With The Fertilization Of Example, The Moisture Of Ambition, And The Sunshine Of Satisfaction. Character Cannot Be Purchased, Bargained For, Inherited, Rented Or Imported From Afar. It Must Be Home-grown. Purely Intellectual Development Without Commensurate Internal Character Development Makes As Much Sense As Putting A High-powered Sports Car In The Hands Of A Teenager Who Is High On Drugs. Yet All Too Often In The Academic World, That's Exactly What We Do By Not Focusing On The Character Development Of Young People.
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Whether You're On A Sports Team, In An Office Or A Member Of A Family, If You Can't Trust One Another There's Going To Be Trouble.
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My Temptation Is Emotional, And Resisting Will Further My Needed Weight Loss And Strengthen My Character. Furthermore, Nothing Tastes As Good As Thin Feels.
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I See Myself Living By Correct Principles And Accomplishing Worthy Purposes. One Of My Favorite Quotes Is, "the Greatest Battles Of Life Are Fought Out Every Day In The Silent Chambers Of One's Own Soul." (david O. Mckay).
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To Set And Work Toward Any Goal Is An Act Of Courage.
Goal
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If We Keep Doing What We're Doing, We're Going To Keep Getting What We're Getting.
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When You Really Listen To Another Person From Their Point Of View, And Reflect Back To Them That Understanding, It's Like Giving Them Emotional Oxygen.
Reflection
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...churchgoing Is Not Synonymous With Personal Spirituality. There Are Some People Who Get So Busy In Church Worship And Projects That They Become Insensitive To The Pressing Human Needs That Sourround Them, Contradicting The Very Precepts They Profess To Believe Deeply.
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Communication
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Management Is Efficiency In Climbing The Ladder Of Success; Leadership Determines Whether The Ladder Is Leaning Against The Right Wall.
Inspirational
Inspiring
Leadership
If You Want To Get Something Done, Give It To A Busy Man.
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We Immediately Become More Effective When We Decide To Change Ourselves Rather Than Asking Things To Change For Us.
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Asking
Change For The Better
A Mission Statement Is Not Something You Write Overnight... But Fundamentally, Your Mission Statement Becomes Your Constitution, The Solid Expression Of Your Vision And Values. It Becomes The Criterion By Which You Measure Everything Else In Your Life.
Life
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Grows
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Children
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Air
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Life Is A Mission, Not A Career.
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Courage Isn't Absenct Of Fear, It Is The Awareness That Something Else Is Important
Change
Courage
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If Our Feelings Control Our Actions, It Is Because We Have Abdicated Our Responsibility And Empowered Them To Do So.
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Want Balance In Your Life? Then Sure, Get Your Own Act Together, But Don't Forget Four Powerful Disciplines Of Execution In Your Team And Organization.
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Distinguish Between The Person And The Behavior Or Performance.
Behavior
Performances
Persons
I Think That [respect For People] Is Of Profound Importance Because It Means You Are Caring And You Trust Them To Do The Right Thing.
Mean
Caring
Thinking
What We Are Communicates Far More Eloquently Than Anything We Say Or Do. There Are People We Trust Because We Know Their Character. Whether They're Eloquent Or Not, Whether They Have Human-relations Techniques Or Not, We Trust Them And Work With Them.
Character
People
Technique
Anyone Can Count The Seeds Of An Apple. Who Can Count The Apples In A Seed?
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Seeds
It's Like The More You Know The More You Know You Don't Know.
Motivational
Wisdom
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The More Involved You Are, The More Significant Your Learning Will Be.
Learning
Significant
Involved
Do What Is Important, Not What Is Urgent.
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Urgent
Principles Are Natural Laws That Are External To Us And That Ultimately Control The Consequences Of Our Actions. Values Are Internal And Subjective And Represent That Which We Feel Strongest About In Guiding Our Behavior.
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Through It All I Have Learned That Parenting Is Basically A Life Of Self Sacrifice.
Sacrifice
Self
Self Sacrifice
Ineffective People Live Day After Day With Unused Potential.
Effectiveness
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When We Pick Up One End Of The Stick, We Pick Up The Other.
Sticks
Ends
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They [nazi Captors]had More Liberty, More Options To Choose From In Their Environment; But He [viktor Frankl] Had More Freedom, More Internal Power To Exercise His Options.
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The Person Who Is Truly Effective Has The Humility And Reverence To Recognize His Own Perceptual Limitations And To Appreciate The Rich Resources Available Through Interaction With The Hearts And Minds Of Other Human Beings.
Heart
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We Are Free To Choose Our Response In Any Situation, But In Doing So We Chose The Attendant Consequence. If We Pick Up One End Of The Stick, We Pick Up The Other.
Sticks
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Writing Is Another Powerful Way To Sharpen The Mental Saw. Keeping A Journal Of Our Thoughts, Experiences, Insights, And Learnings Promotes Mental Clarity, Exactness, And Context.
Powerful
Writing
Way
It Doesn't Really Matter How Fast You're Going If You're Heading In The Wrong Direction.
Inspirational Life
Matter
Headings
The Most Important Ingredient We Put Into Any Relationship Is Not What We Say Or What We Do, But What We Are.
Relationship
Duplicity
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Human Beings Are Not Things Needing To Be Motivated And Controlled; They Are Four Dimensional - Body, Mind, Heart, And Spirit.
Heart
Challenges
Inspire
While We Cannot Always Choose What Happens To Us, We Can Choose Our Responses.
Effectiveness
Efficiency
Response
If Two People Have The Same Opinion, One Is Unnecessary. ... I Don't Want To Talk, To Communicate, With Someone Who Agrees With Me; I Want To Communicate With You Because You See It Differently. I Value That Difference.
Two
Differences
People
Moral Authority Comes From Following Universal And Timeless Principles Like Honesty, Integrity, Treating People With Respect.
Life
Change
Honesty
Principles Are The Basis For Developing A Vision And Value System For All.
Vision
Principles
Culture
Unless You’re Continually Improving Your Skills, You’re Quickly Becoming Irrelevant.
Motivational
Skills
Becoming
Most Of Us Spend Too Much Time On What Is Urgent And Not Enough Time On What Is Important.
Inspirational
Priorities In Life
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To Receive Gratitude With Grace Is A Form Of Gratitude By Itself, And Not Always An Easy Art To Master.
Gratitude
Art
Grace
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Proactive
Turns
People Don't Listen To Understand. They Listen To Reply. The Collective Monologue Is Everyone Talking And No One Listening.
Talking
People
Empathy
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Jobs
People
Done
Communication Is The Most Important Single Activity Of Man.
Communication
Men
Important
Our Behavior Is A Function Of Our Decisions, Not Our Conditions.
Freedom
Decision
Empowerment
We Are The Creative Force Of Our Life, And Through Our Own Decisions Rather Than Our Conditions, If We Carefully Learn To Do Certain Things, We Can Accomplish Those Goals.
Self Esteem
Creativity
Accomplishment
You Can't Be Successful With Other People If You Haven't Paid The Price Of Success With Yourself.
Leadership
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When Your Happiness Comes Primarily From The Happiness Of Others, You Know You Have Moved From A 'me' Experience To A 'we' Experience. And The Whole Problem-solving And Opportunity-seizing Process Changes.
Opportunity
Problem
Process
Actually I Did Not Invent The Seven Habits, They Are Universal Principles And Most Of What I Wrote About Is Just Common Sense. I Am Embarrassed When People Talk About The Covey Habits, And Dislike The Idea Of Being Some Sort Of Guru.
Life
Success
Business
The More Aware We Are Of Our Basic Paradigms, Maps, Or Assumptions, And The Extent To Which We Have Been Influenced By Our Experience, The More We Can Take Responsibility For Those Paradigms, Examine Them, Test Them Against Reality, Listen To Others And Be Open To Their Perceptions, Thereby Getting A Larger Picture And A Far More Objective View.
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Trust Is The Highest Form Of Human Motivation.
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Trust
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Effective Interdependence Can Only Be Built On True Independence.
Independence
Interdependence
True Independence
At Some Time In Your Life, You Probably Had Someone Believe In You When You Didn't Believe In Yourself.
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Personal Development
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Employers And Business Leaders Need People Who Can Think For Themselves - Who Can Take Initiative And Be The Solution To Problems.
Thinking
People
Leader
It's A Fact That More People Watch Television And Get Their Information That Way Than Read Books. I Find New Technology And New Ways Of Communication Very Exciting And Would Like To Do More In This Field.
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Business
Book
People With A Scarcity Mentality Tend To See Everything In Terms Of Win-lose. There Is Only So Much; And If Someone Else Has It, That Means There Will Be Less For Me. The More Principle-centered We Become, The More We Develop An Abundance Mentality, The More We Are Genuinely Happy For The Successes, Well-being, Achievements, Recognition, And Good Fortune Of Other People. We Believe Their Success Adds To...rather Than Detracts From...our Lives.
Believe
Mean
Winning
Management Works In The System; Leadership Works On The System.
Leadership
Business
Management
Sacrifice Really Means Giving Up Something Good For Something Better.
Giving Up
Mean
Sacrifice
If You Carefully Consider What You Want To Be Said Of You In The Funeral Experience, You Will Find Your Definition Of Success.
Funeral
Definitions
Want
To Change Ourselves Effectively, We First Had To Change Our Perceptions.
Change
Inspiration
Perspective
You Think Effectiveness With People And Efficiency With Things.
Thinking
Effectiveness
People
When You Have A Challenge And The Response Is Equal To The Challenge, That's Called 'success'. But Once You Have A New Challenge, The Old, Once-successful Response No Longer Works. That's Why It Is Called A 'failure'.
Successful
Challenges
Equal
It's Better To Be Trusted Than To Be Liked.
Motivational
Trust
Priorities
Principle-centered People Are Constantly Educated By Their Experiences.
People
Principles
Educated
If You Don't Set Your Goals Based Upon Your Mission Statement, You May Be Climbing The Ladder Of Success Only To Realize, When You Get To The Top, You're On The Wrong Building.
Climbing
Goal
Ladders
Affirm People. Affirm Your Children. Believe In Them, Not In What You See But In What You Don't See - Their Potential.
Motivational
Children
Believe
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.
Mistake
People
Weakness
When We Say That Leadership Is A Choice, It Basically Means You Can Choose The Level Of Initiative You Want To Exercise In Response To The Question, ‘what Is The Best I Can Do Under The Given Circumstances?’
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Mean
Exercise
If We Know How To Listen To Our Own Heart, We Can Listen To The Hearts Of Others.
Heart
Compassion
Know How
Don't Get Buried In The Thick Of Thin Things.
Teamwork
Buried
Thick
Win-win Is A Belief In The Third Alternative. It's Not Your Way Or My Way; It's A Better Way, A Higher Way.
Winning
Alternatives
Way
We Exhaust Ourselves More From The Tension And The Consequences Of Internal Disharmony Than From Hard, Unremitting Work.
Emotion
Tension
Disharmony
The Average Family Spends 30 Hours In Front Of A Television, And They Say They Don't Have The Time To Have A Balanced, Integrated Life.
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Television
Hours
Quality Relationships Are Built On Principles, Especially The Principle Of Trust.
Relationship
Quality
Principles
You Can't Live Principals You Can't Understand.
Understanding
Principal
Leadership Without Mutual Trust Is A Contradiction In Terms.
Contradiction
Term
Mutual
Petty Things Become Unimportant When People Are Impassioned About A Purpose Higher Than Self.
Self
People
Purpose
One Thing About Trust Is That Everyone's For It.
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In Addition To Self-awareness, Imagination And Conscience, It Is The Fourth Human Endowment - Independent Will - That Really Makes Effective Self-management Possible. It Is The Ability To Make Decisions And Choices And To Act In Accordance With Them. It Is The Ability To Act Rather Than To Be Acted Upon, To Proactively Carry Out The Program We Have Developed Through The Other Three Endowments. Empowerment Comes From Learning How To Use This Great Endowment In The Decisions We Make Every Day.
Independent
Self Confidence
Decisions We Make
A Personal Mission Statement Becomes The Dna For Every Other Decision We Make.
Dna
Decisions We Make
Purpose
It Takes A Great Deal Of Character Strength To Apologize Quickly Out Of One's Heart Rather Than Out Of Pity.
Heart
Character
Apology
I Am Personally Convinced That One Person Can Be A Change Catalyst, A 'transformer' In Any Situation, Any Organization. Such An Individual Is Yeast That Can Leaven An Entire Loaf. It Requires Vision, Initiative, Patience, Respect, Persistence, Courage, And Faith To Be A Transforming Leader.
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Leadership
Persistence
The Ability To Subordinate An Impulse To A Value Is The Essence Of The Proactive Person. Reactive People Are Driven By Feelings, By Circumstances, By Conditions, By Their Environment. Proactive People Are Driven By Values - Carefully Thought About, Selected And Internalized Values.
Essence
People
Feelings
It Is Possible To Be Busy-very Busy-without Being Very Effective.
Busy
Climbing The Ladder
Ladder Of Success
Many People Think In Terms Of Either/or: Either You're Nice Or You're Tough. Win-win Requires That You Be Both. It Is A Balancing Act Between Courage And Consideration. To Go For Win-win, You Not Only Have To Be Empathic, But You Also Have To Be Confident. You Not Only Have To Be Considerate And Sensitive, You Also Have To Be Brave. To Do That-to Achieve That Balance Between Courage And Consideration-is The Essence Of Real Maturity And Is Fundamental To Win-win.
Real
Nice
Maturity
Consequences Are Governed By Principles, And Behavior Is Governed By Values; Therefore, Value Principles!
Principles
Behavior
Consequence
Sometimes Poor Behavior Is Simply Bad Execution Of Good Intent.
Execution
Sometimes
Behavior
We Tend To Get What We Expect - Both From Ourselves And From Others. When We Expect More, We Tend To Get More; When We Expect Less, We Tend To Get Less.
Motivational
Interdependence Is A Higher Value Than Independence
Love
Friendship
Relationship
I Find Most Meetings Are A Waste Of Time, Because They Are So Ill-prepared And There's Little Opportunity For True Synergy In Producing Better Solutions Than What Anyone Originally Thought Of. So I Work Hard To Only Attend Those Meetings That Have Strategic Importance And Miss All Kinds Of Other Seemingly Urgent Meetings.
Hard Work
Opportunity
Missing
In This Knowledge-worker Age, It's Now Increasingly Tied To Doing Well In School So You Can Get Into Better Grad Schools So You Can Get Better Jobs - So The Pressure To Do Well Is Really High.
Jobs
School
Get Better
Whether We Are Aware Of It Or Not, Whether We Are In Control Of It Or Not, There Is A First Creation To Every Part Of Our Lives. We Are Either The Second Creation Of Our Own Proactive Design, Or We Are The Second Creation Of Other People's Agendas, Of Circumstances, Or Of Past Habits.
Past
People
Design
Most People Are Basically A Victim Of The Circumstances Of Their Life. They Have Things Like 9/11, They Have Terrorism Threats, They Have New War Threats, They Have Economy Problems, And They Think, 'what Can I Do? I'm Basically A Victim.'
War
Thinking
People
You Always Reap What You Sow; There Is No Shortcut.
Shortcuts
Reap
Self-awareness Involves Deep Personal Honesty. It Comes From Asking And Answering Hard Questions.
Honesty
Self
Asking
Two People Can See The Same Thing, Disagree, And Yet Both Be Right. It's Not Logical; It's Psychological.
Two
People
Perspective
Wisdom Is Your Perspective On Life, Your Sense Of Balance, Your Understanding Of How The Various Parts And Principles Apply And Relate To Each Other.
Perspective
Understanding
Balance
Innocent Pleasures In Moderation Can Provide Relaxation For The Body And Mind And Can Foster Family And Other Relationships. But Pleasure, Per Se, Offers No Deep, Lasting Satisfaction Or Sense Of Fulfillment. The Pleasure-centered Person, Too Soon Bored With Each Succeeding Level Of "fun," Constantly Cries For More And More. So The Next New Pleasure Has To Be Bigger And Better, More Exciting, With A Bigger "high." A Person In This State Becomes Almost Entirely Narcissistic, Interpreting All Of Life In Terms Of The Pleasure It Provides To The Self Here And Now.
Fun
Pursuit Of Happiness
Self
I Define Discipline As The Ability To Make + Keep Promises And To Honor Commitments.
Motivational
Commitment
Discipline
The Need To Leave A Legacy Is Our Spiritual Need To Have A Sense Of Meaning, Purpose, Personal Congruence, And Contribution.
Spiritual
Legacy
Needs
Technology And Tools Are Useful And Powerful When They Are Your Servant And Not Your Master.
Teamwork
Powerful
Technology
When Two People In A Marriage Are More Concerned About Getting The Golden Eggs, The Benefits, Than They Are In Preserving The Relationship That Makes Them Possible, They Often Become Insensitive And Inconsiderate, Neglecting The Little Kindnesses And Courtesies So Important To A Deep Relationship. They Begin To Use Control Levers To Manipulate Each Other, To Focus On Their Own Needs, To Justify Their Own Position And Look For Evidence To Show The Wrongness Of The Other Person. The Love, The Richness, The Softness And Spontaneity Begin To Deteriorate.
Love
Kindness
Eggs
All Things Are Created Twice. There's A Mental Or First Creation, And A Physical Or Second Creation Of All Things. You Have To Make Sure That The Blueprint, The First Creation, Is Really What You Want, That You've Thought Everything Through. Then You Put It Into Bricks And Mortar. Each Day You Go To The Construction Shed And Pull Out The Blueprint To Get Marching Orders For The Day. You Begin With The End In Mind.
Bricks And Mortar
Order
Mind
When Parents See Their Children's Problems As Opportunities To Build The Relationship Instead Of As Negative, Burdensome Irritations, It Totally Changes The Nature Of Parent-child Interaction. Parents Become More Willing, Even Excited, About Deeply Understanding And Helping Their Children. . . . This Paradigm Is Powerful In Business As Well.
Relationship
Change
Family
Nothing Is As Fast As The Speed Of Trust.
Speed
Every Exaggeration Of The Truth Once Detected By Others Destroys Our Credibility And Makes All That We Do And Say Suspect.
Truth
Honesty
Destruction
Love - The Feeling - Is A Fruit Of Love, The Verb.
Love
Feelings
Fruit
In The Absence Of Wake-up Calls, Many Of Us Never Really Confront The Critical Issues Of Life.
Life
Issues
Wake Up
Our Problems And Pain Are Universal And Increasing, And The Solutions To The Problems Are And Always Will Be Based Upon Universal, Timeless, Self-evident Principles Common To Every Enduring, Prospering Society Throughout History.
Pain
Self
Principles
We Can Never Really Change Someone; People Must Change Themselves.
Change
People
Synergy Is What Happens When One Plus One Equals Ten Or A Hundred Or Even A Thousand! It's The Profound Result When Two Or More Respectful Human Beings Determine To Go Beyond Their Preconceived Ideas To Meet A Great Challenge.
Life
Change
Ideas
We Accomplish All That We Do Through Delegation - Either To Time Or To Other People.
Leadership
People
Accomplish
To Retain Those Who Are Present, Be Loyal To Those Who Are Absent.
Loyal
7 Habits
Interpersonal Skills
Be Part Of The Solution, Not Part Of The Problem.
Problem
7 Habits
Solutions
You Can Learn Great Things From Your Mistakes When You Aren’t Busy Denying Them.
Mistake
Busy
Great Things
We Must Never Be Too Busy To Take Time To Sharpen The Saw.
Time
Saws
Busy
It's Incredibly Easy To Get Caught Up In An Activity Trap, In The Busy-ness Of Life, To Work Harder And Harder At Climbing The Ladder Of Success Only To Discover It's Leaning Against The Wrong Wall. It Is Possible To Be Busy - Very Busy - Without Being Very Effective.
Wall
Hard Work
Climbing
Once We Are Self-aware, We Must Choose Purposes And Principles To Live By; Otherwise The Vacuum Will Be Filled, And We Will Lose Our Self-awareness And Become Like Groveling Animals Who Live Primarily For Survival And Propagation. People Who Exist On That Level Aren't Living; They Are "being Lived".
Lying
Unique
Animal
We May Find It Convenient To Live With The Illusion That Circumstances Or Other People Are Responsible For The Quality Of Our Lives, But The Reality Is That We Are Responsible-response-able-for Our Choices.
Reality
People
Choices
We Develop Our Character Muscles By Overcoming Challenges And Obstacles.
Character
Challenges
Overcoming
Be A Light, Not A Judge, Be A Model Not A Critic. Little By Little, Your Circle Of Influence Will Explode And You Will Avoid The Emotional Metastasizing Cancers Of Complaining, Criticizing, Competing, Comparing And Cynicism, All Which Reflect Victimization, All Of Which Are The Opposite Of Being Proactive.
Cancer
Emotional
Circles
In A Very Real Sense, There Are Only Two Roles In Organisations: Customers And Suppliers. Everybody Functions Simultaneously In Both Roles, Whether Inside Or Outside The Organisation The Essence Of Good Business, Therefore, Is The Quality Of The Relationship Between Customer And Supplier.
Real
Essence
Two
People With A Scarcity Mentality Think There Is Only So Much In The World To Go Around. It's As If They See Life As A Pie. When Another Person Gets A Big Piece, Then They Get Less. Such People Are Always Trying To Get Even, To Pull Others Down To Their Level So They Can Get An Equal Or Even Bigger Piece Of The Pie.
Thinking
Always Trying
Pie
A Good Affirmation Has Five Basic Ingredients: It's Personal, It's Positive, It's Present Tense, It's Visual, And It's Emotional.
Emotional
Ingredients
Affirmation
There Are Certain Things That Are Fundamental To Human Fulfillment. The Essence Of These Needs Is Captured In The Phrase 'to Live, To Love, To Learn, To Leave A Legacy.' The Need To Leave A Legacy Is Our Spiritual Need To Have A Sense Of Meaning, Purpose, Personal Congruence, And Contribution.
Spiritual
Essence
Legacy
I Am Senting Many Books For Endorsement Purposes, Which Enables Me To Stay Relevant In My Own Field, And I Have People That Help Me Decide Which Ones I Should Read And Endorse.
Book
People
Purpose
Taking Initiative Is A Form Of Self-empowerment.
Self
Empowerment
Initiative
The Human Will Is An Amazing Thing. Time After Time, It Has Triumphed Against Unbelievable Odds.
Encouragement
Odds
Unbelievable
We're Responsible For Our Own Lives.
Responsible
Good Decision
The Power To Distinguish Between Person And Performance And To Communicate Intrinsic Worth Flows Naturally Out Of Our Own Sense Of Intrinsic Worth.
Flow
Communicate
Performances
Satisfied Needs Do Not Motivate. It's Only The Unsatisfied Need That Motivates. Next To Physical Survival, The Greatest Need Of A Human Being Is Psychological Survival - To Be Understood, To Be Affirmed, To Be Validated, To Be Appreciated.
Survival
Needs
Next
As A Principle-centered Person You Try To Stand Apart From The Emotion Of The Situation And From Other Factors That Would Act On You, And Evaluate The Options. Looking At The Balanced Whole-the Work Needs, The Family Needs, The Other Needs That May Be Involved, And The Possible Implications Of The Various Alternatives - You'll Try To Come Up With The Best Solution Taking All Factors Into Consideration. We Are Limited But We Can Push Back The Borders Of Our Limitations.
Family
Balance
Trying
At The Core, There Is One Simple, Overarching Reason Why So Many People Remain Unsatisfied In Their Work And Why Most Organisations Fail To Draw Out The Greatest Talent, Ingenuity, And Creativity Of Their People And Never Become Truly Great, Enduring Organisations. It Stems From An Incomplete Paradigm Of Who We Are - Our Fundamental View Of Human Nature. The Fundamental Reality Is, Human Beings Are Not Things Needing To Be Motivated And Controlled; They Are Four-dimensional - Body, Mind, Heart, And Spirit.
Heart
Creativity
Simple
Basing Our Happiness On Our Ability To Control Everything Is Futile.
Happiness
Pursuit Of Happiness
Planning
What Difference Would A Clear Vision Of My Principles, Values, And Ultimate Objectives Make In The Way I Spend My Time?
Differences
Vision
Principles
While You Can Think In Terms Of Efficiency In Dealing With Time, A Principle-centered Person Thinks In Terms Of Effectiveness In Dealing With People.
Inspirational
Thinking
Effectiveness
Instead, I Have An Abundance Mentality: When People Are Genuinely Happy At The Successes Of Others, The Pie Gets Larger.
Morning
Pie
People
The Heart And Soul Of Loving Yourself Is Integrity And The Peace Of Conscience It Inspires.
Integrity
Heart
Loving Yourself
Humility Is The Mother Of All Virtues: The Humble In Spirit Progress And Are Blessed Because They Willingly Submit To Higher Powers And Try To Live In Harmony With Natural Laws And Universal Principles. Courage Is The Father Of All Virtues; We Need Great Courage To Lead Our Lives By Correct Principles And To Have Integrity In The Moment Of Choice.
Mother
Father
Integrity
If We Do Not Teach Our Children, Societ Will. And They-and We-will Live With The Results.
Change
Children
Results
I Keep My Phone Number Unlisted And Rely On My Associates To Handle All Voice Mail, E-mail, Faxes.
Phones
Voice
Numbers
Spiritual Intelligence Represents Our Drive For Meaning And Connection With The Infinite.
Spiritual
Connections
Infinite
A Cardinal Principle Of Total Quality Escapes Too Many Managers: You Cannot Continuously Improve Interdependent Systems And Processes Until You Progressively Perfect Interdependent, Interpersonal Relationships.
Business
Insperational
Perfect
Your Systems Are Perfectly Designed To Get The Results That You Are Getting.
Results
We Not Not Our Feelings. We Are Not Our Moods. We Not Even Our Thoughts.
Feelings
Mood
Our Thoughts
Nothing Is More Exciting And Bonding In Relationships Than Creating Together.
Creativity
Creating
Together
If You Don't Have Confidence In The Diagnosis, You Won't Have Confidence In The Prescription.
Life
Diagnosis
Have Confidence
If You Say To One Flower, 'grow,' But You Water Another, The First One Won't Grow.
Motivational
Flower
Water
To Listen With Empathy Is The Most Important Human Skill.
Skills
Empathy
Important
The Exercise Of True Leadership Is Inversely Proportional To The Exercise Of Power.
Exercise
Democracy
True Leader
If You Want Small Changes In Your Life, Work On Your Attitude. But If You Want Big And Primary Changes, Work On Your Paradigm.
Life
Change
Attitude
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