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Most Of Us Think We Don't Have Enough Time To Exercise. What A Distorted Paradigm! We Don't Have Time Not To. We're Talking About Three To Six Hours A Week - Or A Minimum Of Thirty Minutes A Day, Every Other Day. That Hardly Seems An Inordinate Amount Of Time Considering The Tremendous Benefits In Terms Of The Impact On The Other 162 - 165 Hours Of The Week.

-Stephen Covey

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Most Of Us Think

Stephen Covey

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Most Of Us Think We Don't Have Enough Time To Exercise. What A Distorted Paradigm! We Don't Have Time Not To. We're Talking About Three To Six Hours A Week - Or A Minimum Of Thirty Minutes A Day, Every Other Day. That Hardly Seems An Inordinate Amount Of Time Considering The Tremendous Benefits In Terms Of The Impact On The Other 162 - 165 Hours Of The Week.

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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.

Self-mastery And Self-discipline Are The Foundation Of Good Relationships With Others.

Good Relationship

Two People Can See The Same Thing, Disagree, And Yet Both Be Right. It's Not Logical; It's Psychological.

Attending Church Does Not Necessarily Mean Living The Principles Taught In Those Meeting. You Can Be Active In A Church But Inactive In Its Gospel.

Your Systems Are Perfectly Designed To Get The Results That You Are Getting.

Live Simply And Appreciate What You Have. Give More. Expect Less.

Appreciate What You Have

If You Are An Effective Manager Of Your Self, Your Discipline Comes From Within; It Is A Function Of Your Independent Will. You Are A Disciple, A Follower, Of Your Own Deep Values And Their Source. And You Have The Will, The Integrity, To Subordinate Your Feelings, Your Impulses, Your Moods To Those Values.

We Immediately Become More Effective When We Decide To Change Ourselves Rather Than Asking Things To Change For Us.

Change For The Better

To Ignore The Unexpected (even If It Were Possible) Would Be To Live Without Opportunity, Spontaneity, And The Rich Moments Of Which "life" Is Made.

Valuing Differences Is What Really Drives Synergy. Do You Truly Value The Mental, Emotional, And Psychological Differences Among People? Or Do You Wish Everyone Would Just Agree With You So You Could All Get Along? Many People Mistake Uniformity For Unity; Sameness For Oneness. One Word--boring! Differences Should Be Seen As Strengths, Not Weaknesses. They Add Zest To Life.

What Difference Would A Clear Vision Of My Principles, Values, And Ultimate Objectives Make In The Way I Spend My Time?

How Different Our Lives Are When We Really Know What Is Deeply Important To Us, And Keeping That Picture In Mind, We Manage Ourselves Each Day To Be And To Do What Really Matters Most.

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.

Start Small, Make A Promise And Keep It. Then, Make Larger Promises And Keep Them. Eventually, Your Honor Will Become Greater Than Your Moods Or Your Circumstances, Which Includes Your Medical Condition And Other People's Stereotypic Observations. Once You Overcome This Comparison Based Mentality, Your Confidence Will Soar.

Don't Get Buried In The Thick Of Thin Things.

You Can Learn Great Things From Your Mistakes When You Aren’t Busy Denying Them.

Be A Light, Not A Judge. Be A Model, Not A Critic

If My Sense Of Security Lies In My Reputation Or In The Things I Have, My Life Will Be In A Constant State Of Threat And Jeopardy-a Fear That These Possessions May Be Lost, Stolen, Or Devalued. If I'm In The Presence Of Someone Of Greater Net Worth, Fame, Or Status, I Feel Inferior. If I'm In The Presence Of Someone Of Lesser Net Worth, Fame Or Status, I Feel Superior. My Sense Of Self-worth Constantly Fluctu-ates. I Don't Have Any Sense Of Constancy, Anchorage, Or Persistent Selfhood. I Am Constantly Trying To Protect And Insure My Assets, Properties, Securities, Position, Or Reputation.

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.

Principles Are Guidelines For Human Conduct That Are Proven To Have Enduring, Permanent Value.

Peace Of Mind Comes When Your Life Is In Harmony With True Principles And Values And In No Other Way.

Most Of Us Spend Too Much Time On What Is Urgent And Not Enough Time On What Is Important.

Priorities In Life

To Judge Individuals Before Understanding Them Is A Form Of Human Rejection And Feeds Upon Itself.

We See The World, Not As It Is, But As We Are -- Or, As We Are Conditioned To See It. When We Open Our Mouths To Describe What We See, We In Effect Describe Ourselves, Our Perceptions, Our Paradigms.

Synergy: The Combined Effect Of Individuals In Collaboration That Exceeds The Sum Of Their Individual Effects.

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.

It's Not Only A Matter Of When To Do Things, But Whether Or Not To Do Them At All.

You Can't Talk Your Way Out Of A Problem You Behaved Your Way Into!

Interpersonal Skills

Leadership Is Communicating People's Worth And Potential So Clearly That They Come To See It Themselves.

The Key To The Many Is Often The One; It Is How You Regard And Talk About The One In That One's Absence Or Presence That Communicates To The Many How You Would Regard And Talk About Them In Their Presence Or Absence.

At Some Time In Your Life, You Probably Had Someone Believe In You When You Didn't Believe In Yourself.

Personal Development

Efficient Management Without Effective Leadership Is, As One Individual Phrased, It, "like Straightening Deck Chairs On The Titanic".

Organize And Execute Around Priorities.

Put First Things First

The Proactive Approach To A Mistake Is To Acknowledge It Instantly, Correct And Learn From It. This Literally Turns A Failure Into A Success.

Your Power To Choose Your Direction Of Your Life Allows You To Reinvent Yourself, To Change Your Future, And To Powerfully Influence The Rest Of Creation.

Remember That Our Reactions Are A Product Of Our Perceptions, And Our Perceptions Are A Result Of What Is At The Center Of Our Life.

Principles Are The Basis For Developing A Vision And Value System For All.

Our Capacity For Production And Enjoyment Is A Function, In The Last Analysis, Of Our Character, Our Integrity.

I Believe That A Life Of Integrity I The Most Fundamental Source Of Personal Worth. I Do Not Agree With The Popular Success Literature That Says That Self-esteem Is Primarily A Matter Of Mind Set, Of Attitude-that You Can Psych Yourself Into Peace Of Mind. Peace Of Mind Comes When Your Life Is In Harmony With True Principles And Values And In No Other Way.

Would You Not Agree That Relationships Are Built On Trust? Would You Not Also Agree That Most Individuals Think More In Terms Of "me-my Wants, My Needs, My Rights? What Would Wisdom Dictate - Would It Not Direct Us To Focus On Trust-building Principles And Sacrificing 'me' For 'we'?"

Trust Is A Function Of Two Things: Character And Competence. Character Includes Your Integrity, Your Motive And Your Intent With People. Competence Includes Your Capabilities, Your Skills, And Your Track Record. Both Are Vital.

To Live; To Love; To Learn; And To Leave A Legacy.

It Takes Courage To Realize That You Are Greater Than Your Moods, Greater Than Your Thoughts, And That You Can Control Your Moods And Thoughts.

I Won't Take Time To Repeat All The Obvious Benefits Of Physical Exercise But Will Only Underscore The Well-attested Fact That A Program Of Regular Exercise Increases One's Efficiency In Every Facet Of Life, Including The Depth And Restfulness Of Sleep. And The Time Taken Can Be Minimal; Just A Few Minutes Of Calisthenics And Running In Place In One's Room Or Jogging Around The Yard Or Block Is Often Sufficient. Exercising Doesn't Take Time. It Saves Time. Still, Few Consistently Do It.

It Is In The Ordinary Events Of Every Day That We Develop The Proactive Capacity To Handle The Extraordinary Pressures Of Life. It's How We Make And Keep Commitments, How We Handle A Traffic Jam, How We Respond To An Irate Customer Or A Disobedient Child. It's How We View Our Problems And Where We Focus Our Energies. It's The Language We Use.

Be A Function Of Your Values Rather Than A Function Of The Impulse Or Desire Of Any Given Moment.

Paradigms Are Powerful Because They Create The Lens Through Which We See The World.

If We Can't Make And Keep Commitments To Ourselves As Well As To Others, Our Commitments Become Meaningless.

Where You Are Headed Is More Important Than How Fast You Are Going. Rather Than Always Focusing On What's Urgent, Learn To Focus On What Is Really Important.

Only 20 Percent Of Employees Working In Large Organizations Surveyed Feel Their Strengths Are In Play Every Day. Thus, Eight Our Of Ten Employees Surveyed Feel Somewhat Miscast In Their Role.

I Try To Exercise Regularly Every Day, If I Can. It Renews You And It Gives You More Balance In Your Life. This Is A Key Leverage Point.

Interdependent People Combine Their Own Efforts With The Efforts Of Others To Achieve Their Greatest Success.

Accountability Breeds Response-ability.

Private Victory Precedes Public Victory. Algebra Comes Before Calculus.

The Place To Begin Building Any Relationship Is Inside Ourselves, Inside Our Circle Of Influence, Our Own Character.

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.

Frustration Is A Function Of Our Expectations.

Above All, Success In Business Requires Two Things: A Winning Competitive Strategy, And Superb Organizational Execution. Distrust Is The Enemy Of Both. I Submit That While High Trust Won't Necessarily Rescue A Poor Strategy, Low Trust Will Almost Always Derail A Good One.

Live, Love, Laugh, Leave A Legacy.

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.

Ineffective People Live Day After Day With Unused Potential. They Experience Synergy Only In Small, Peripheral Ways In Their Lives. But Creative Experiences Can Be Produced Regularly, Consistently, Almost Daily In People's Lives. It Requires Enormous Personal Security And Openness And A Spirit Of Adventure.

I'm Convinced That We Can Write And Live Our Own Scripts More Than Most People Will Acknowledge. I Also Know The Price That Must Be Paid. It's A Real Struggle To Do It. It Requires Visualization And Affirmation. It Involves Living A Life Of Integrity, Starting With Making And Keeping Promises, Until The Whole Human Personality The Senses, The Thinking, The Feeling, And The Intuition Are Ultimately Integrated And Harmonized.

Putting First Things First Means Organizing And Executing Around Your Most Important Priorities. It Is Living And Being Driven By The Principles You Value Most, Not By The Agendas And Forces Surrounding You.

Begin With The End In Mind.

Too Many Vacations That Last Too Long, Too Many Movies, Too Much Tv, Too Much Video Game Playing - Too Much Undisciplined Leisure Time In Which A Person Continually Takes The Course Of Least Resistance Gradually Wastes A Life. It Ensures That A Person's Capacities Stay Dormant, That Talents Remain Undeveloped, That The Mind And Spirit Become Lethargic And That The Heart Remains Unfulfilled.

The Ability To Manage Well Doesn't Make Much Difference If You're Not Even In The Right Jungle.

It Comes From Within.

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.

But With The Steady Disintegration Of The Family In Modern Society Over The Last Century, The Role Of The School In Bridging The Gap Has Become Vital!

Instead, I Have An Abundance Mentality: When People Are Genuinely Happy At The Successes Of Others, The Pie Gets Larger.

It's Not What People Do To Us That Hurts Us. In The Most Fundamental Sense, It Is Our Chosen Response To What They Do To Us That Hurts Us.

The Key To The Ability To Change Is A Changeless Sense Of Who You Are, What You Are About And What You Value.

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.

We See The World, Not As It Is, But As We Are──or, As We Are Conditioned To See It.

Always Treat Your Employees Exactly As You Want Them To Treat Your Best Customers. You Can Buy A Person's Hand, But You Can't Buy His Heart; His Heart Is Where His Enthusiasm Is. You Can Buy His Back, But You Can't Buy His Brain. That's Where His Creativity Is. Treat Employees As Volunteers Just As You Treat Customers As Volunteers, Because That's What They Are. They Volunteer The Best Parts - Their Hearts And Minds.

But Borrowing Strength Builds Weakness.

Personal Development

The Greatest And Most Inspiring Mountain Climbing Achievements In History Are Not So Much Stories Of Individual Achievement, But Are Stories Of The Extraordinary Power Of A Unified, Talented, Prepared Team That Stays Loyally Committed To One Another And To Their Shared Vision To The End.

Trust Is A Function Of Both Character And Competence. Of Course You Can't Trust Someone Who Lacks Integrity, But If Someone Is Honest But They Can't Perform, You're Not Going To Trust Them Either. You Won't Trust Them To Get The Job Done.

The Undisciplined Are Slaves To Moods, Appetites And Passions

Everyone Chooses One Of Two Roads In Life - The Old And The Young, The Rich And The Poor, Men And Women Alike. One Is The Broad, Well-traveled Road To Mediocrity, The Other Road To Greatness And Meaning.

Interdependence Is A Choice Only Independent People Can Make

Through Imagination, We Can Visualize The Uncredited Worlds Of Potential That Lie Within Us.

We Develop Our Character Muscles By Overcoming Challenges And Obstacles.

By Centering Our Lives On Correct Principles And Creating A Balanced Focus Between Doing And Increasing Our Ability To Do, We Become Empowered To The Task Of Creating Effective Useful And Peaceful Lives.

Integrity Is Conforming Reality To Our Words - In Other Words, Keeping Promises And Fulfilling Expectations.

Keeping Promises

If You Don't Choose To Do It In Leadership Time Up Front, You Do It In Crisis Management Time Down The Road.

In Effective Personal Leadership, Visualization And Affirmation Techniques Emerge Naturally Out Of A Foundation Of Well Thought Through Purposes And Principles That Become The Center Of A Person's Life.

What One Great Idea Resonates Deeper In The Soul Than Any Other...that We Are Free To Choose. Next To Life Itself, The Power To Choose Is Your Greatest Gift.

As We Create Synergy Among The Roles Of Our Lives, There's More Of Us To Put Into The Time We Have.

The Key Is Not To Prioritize What's On Your Schedule, But To Schedule Your Priorities.

You Can't Live Principals You Can't Understand.

More Essential Than Working On Attitudes And Behaviors Is Examining The Paradigms Out Of Which Those Attitudes And Behaviors Flow.

What You Do Has Far Greater Impact Than What You Say.

Trust Is The Glue That Holds Everything Together.

It Takes Humility To Seek Feedback. It Takes Wisdom To Understand It, Analyze It And Appropriately Act On It.

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.

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.

If We Live Out Of Our Memory, We're Tied To The Past And To That Which Is Finite. When We Live Out Of Our Imagination, We're Tied To That Which Is Infinite.

Trust Is Equal Parts Character And Competence... You Can Look At Any Leadership Failure, And It's Always A Failure Of One Or The Other.

If We Want To Make Relatively Minor Changes In Our Lives, We Can Perhaps Appropriately Focus On Our Attitudes And Behaviors. But If We Want To Make Significant, Quantum Change, We Need To Work On Our Basic Paradigms.

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.

People And Their Managers Are Working So Hard To Be Sure Things Are Done Right, That They Have Hardly Have Time To Decide If They Are Doing The Right Things.

An Empowered Organization Is One In Which Individuals Have The Knowledge, Skill, Desire, And Opportunity To Personally Succeed In A Way That Leads To Collective Organizational Success.

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.

Anytime We Think The Problem Is 'out There,' That Thought Is The Problem. We Empower What's Out There To Control Us. The Change Paradigm Is 'outside-in' - What's Out There Has To Change Before We Can Change. The Proactive Approach Is To Change From The 'inside-out': To Be Different, And By Being Different, To Effect Positive Change In What's Out There - I Can Be More Resourceful, I Can Be More Diligent, I Can Be More Creative, I Can Be More Cooperative.

If There Is No Gardener There Is No Garden.

If You Carefully Consider What You Want To Be Said Of You In The Funeral Experience, You Will Find Your Definition Of Success.

Be Sure That, As You Scramble Up The Ladder Of Success, It Is Leaning Against The Right Building.

Stop Setting Goals. Goals Are Pure Fantasy Unless You Have A Specific Plan To Achieve Them.

It's Not Enough To Have Values Without Vision ; You Want To Be Good, But You Want To Be Good For Something. On The Other Hand, Vision Without Values Can Create A Hitler . An Empowering Mission Statement Deals With Both Character And Competence; What You Want To Be And What You Want To Do In Your Life.

Happiness, Like Unhappiness, Is A Proactive Choice.

Success Comes From The Ability To View Each Arising Problem As An Opportunity For Self Improvement.

Almost Every Significant Breakthrough Is The Result Of A Courageous Break With Traditional Ways Of Thinking.

Effective Communication Is Built On The Cement Of Trust. And Trust Is Based On Trustworthiness, Not Politics.

Trustworthiness

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.

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.

When One Side Benefits More Than The Other, That's A Win-lose Situation. To The Winner It Might Look Like Success For A While, But In The Long Run, It Breeds Resentment And Distrust.

Anyone Can Count The Seeds Of An Apple. Who Can Count The Apples In A Seed?

Humility Is The Mother Of All Virtues, Courage The Father, Integrity The Child And Wisdom The Grandchild.

The Worldly Fountain Does Not Breed Spiritual Depth.

An Empowering Mission Statement Has To Become A Living Document, Part Of Our Very Nature, So That The Criteria We've Put Into It Are Also In Us, In The Way We Live Our Lives Day By Day.

Moral Authority Comes From Following Universal And Timeless Principles Like Honesty, Integrity, Treating People With Respect.

Studies Have Identified A Significant 'skills Gap' Between What Students Are Currently Being Taught And The Skills Employers Are Seeking In Today's Global Economy. Our Children Must Be Better Prepared Than They Are Now To Meet The Future Challenges Of Our Ever-changing World.

To Listen With Empathy Is The Most Important Human Skill.

When We Listen With The Intent To Understand Others, Rather Than With The Intent To Reply, We Begin True Communication And Relationship Building. Opportunities To Then Speak Openly And To Be Understood Come Much More Naturally And Easily.

...people Have Character Strength But They Lack Communication Skills, And That Undoubtedly Affects The Quality Of Relationships As Well.

The Key Is In Not Spending Time, But In Investing It.

We're Constantly Making Choices About The Way We Spend Our Time. The Issue Is Not Between The Good And The Bad, But Between The Good And The Best. So Often, The Enemy Of The Best Is The Good.

Private Victories Precede Public Victories. You Can't Invert That Process Any More Than You Can Harvest A Crop Before You Plant It.

In The Last Analysis, What We Are Communicates Far More Eloquently Than Anything We Say Or Do.

Results Matter! They Matter To Your Credibility.

You Can't Have The Fruits Without The Roots.

Communication Is The Most Important Skill In Life. We Spend Most Of Our Waking Hours Communicating. But Consider This: You've Spent Years Learning How To Read And Write, Years Learning How To Speak. But What About Listening?

If We Overcome The Pull And "get Up And Get At It," We Will Have Won A Victory. We Have Kept Our Own Resolve. We Can Then Move To Other Things, For By Small Means Great Things Are Accomplished. Thus, Even This One Small Step Is Also In Another Sense A Giant Leap.

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.

If You Are An Effective Manager Of Your Self, Your Discipline Comes From Within; It Is A Function Of Your Independent Will.

If You Put Good People In Bad Systems You Get Bad Results. You Have To Water The Flowers You Want To Grow.

There's No Better Way To Inform And Expand You Mind On A Regular Basis Than To Get Into The Habit Of Reading Good Literature.

If The Big Rocks Don't Go In First, They Aren't Going To Fit In Later.

We Can Act Instead Of Being Acted Upon.

Will We Act Upon Life, Or Will We Merely Be Acted Upon?

Do What Is Important, Not What Is Urgent.

The Role Of The Leader Is To Foster Mutual Respect And Build A Complementary Team Where Each Strength Is Made Productive And Each Weakness Irrelevant.

Be Patient With Yourself. Self-growth Is Tender; It's Holy Ground. There's No Greater Investment.

It's Not That We Ignore Our Weaknesses; Rather, We Make Our Weaknesses Irrelevant By Working Effectively With Others So That We Compensate For Our Weaknesses Through Their Strengths And They Compensate For Their Weaknesses Through Our Strengths.

Highly Effective People Tend To Be Proactive. They Decide To Find A Better Job Or To Have Better Health, Rather Than Of Responding To Whatever Curves Life Throws At Them.

Historically, The Family Has Played The Primary Role In Educating Children For Life, With The School Providing Supplemental Scaffolding To The Family.

Self-awareness Involves Deep Personal Honesty. It Comes From Asking And Answering Hard Questions.

Make Small Commitments And Keep Them. Be A Light, Not A Judge. Be A Model, Not A Critic. Be A Part Of The Solution, Not The Problem.

True Effectiveness Is A Function Of Two Things: What Is Produced (the Golden Eggs) And The Producing Asset (the Goose).

To Focus On Technique Is Like Cramming Your Way Through School. You Sometimes Get By, Perhaps Even Get Good Grades, But If You Don't Pay The Price Day In And Day Out, You'll Never Achieve True Mastery Of The Subjects You Study Or Develop An Educated Mind.

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.

The Great Contributors In Life Are Those Who, Though Afraid Of The Knock At The Door, Still Answer It.

Nothing Is More Exciting And Bonding In Relationships Than Creating Together.

If I Try To Use Human Influence Strategies And Tactics Of How To Get Other People To Do What I Want, To Work Better, To Be More Motivated, To Like Me And Each Other-while My Character Is Fundamentally Flawed, Marked By Duplicity And Insincerity-then, In The Long Run, I Cannot Be Successful. My Duplicity Will Breed Distrust, And Everything I Do-even Using So-called Good Human Relations Techniques-will Be Perceived As Manipulative.

Trust Is A Competency. It's Something You Can Get Good At. It's A Strength You Personally, And Your Team And Your Company Can Master. Being Good At It Will Elevate Every Other Strength You Have.

You Basically Get What You Reward. If You Want To Achieve The Goals And Reflect The Values In Your Mission Statement, Then You Need To Align The Reward System With These Goals And Values.

Being Is Seeing In The Human Dimension.

It's Better To Be Humbled By The Word Than By The Force Of Circumstances.

The Way We See The Problem Is The Problem.

While I Believe In The Power Of Positive Thought, I Do Not Believe That You Or I Can Simply Psyche Ourselves Into Success Or Peace Of Mind.

Positive Thoughts

To Judge Someone Before Understanding That Person Is A Form Of Human Rejection And Feeds Upon Itself. It Intensifies Personal Insecurities, Necessitating More Judgment (prejudice) And Less Understanding. The Processes Continue In This Vicious Cycle.

Through It All I Have Learned That Parenting Is Basically A Life Of Self Sacrifice.

Despite All Our Gains In Technology, Product Innovation And World Markets, Most People Are Not Thriving In The Organizations They Work For.

Vital To Quality Of Life Is The Ability To Work Together, Learn From Each Other, And Help Each Other Grow.

Working Together

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.

Employees Are Given The Chance To Help Shape Their Company By Participating In A Company-wide Communications Program Making Suggestions On Waste Reduction, Environmental Improvement, Customer Satisfaction, Quality Improvement, And Safety Issues.

The Challenge Is Not To Manage Time, But To Manage Ourselves.

Time Management

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.

Love - The Feeling - Is A Fruit Of Love, The Verb.

The Only Person Over Whom You Have Direct And Immediate Control Is Yourself. The Most Important Assets To Develop, Preserve And Enhance, Therefore, Are Your Own Capabilities. And No One Can Do It For You. You Must Cultivate The Habit Of Leadership Effectiveness For Yourself - And Doing So Will Be The Single Best Investment You Will Ever Make.

Everyone Has Values; Even Criminal Gangs Have Values. Values Govern People's Behavior But Principles Govern The Consequences Of Those Behaviors.

Balance Isn't Either/or; It's 'and'.

Unfortunately, Too Many Executives Believe The Myths About Trust. Myths Like How Trust Is Soft And Is Merely A Social Virtue. The Reality Is That Trust Is Hard-edged And Is An Economic Driver.

The Best Way To Develop Courage Is To Set A Goal And Achieve It, Make A Promise And Keep It.

We're Often So Busy Cutting Through The Undergrowth We Don't Even Realise We're In The Wrong Jungle.

...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.

To Blame And Accuse Other People, Is To Choose To Empower Them, To Control Us.

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.

In Order To Have Influence, You Have To Be Influenced.

Self Improvement

Management Is Formal Authority Given From Above. Leadership Is Moral Authority Given From Below And All Around.

I Believe That The Habit Of Constant Reading Of Good Books And Scholarly Periodicals And Magazines In Many Disciplines Is Vital To Give A Larger Perspective And To Constantly Sense The Interdependent Nature Of Life.

The Core Of Any Family Is What Is Changeless, What Is Going To Be There──shared Vision And Values.

In Many Situations Involving Service Recovery - The Problem Itself Became The Catalyst For The Creation Of Even Greater Trust As The Companies Took The Issues Head-on And Worked Through The Difficult Problem In A Way That Restored Confidence.

If You Can Hire People Whose Passion Intersects With The Job, They Won't Require Any Supervision At All. They Will Manage Themselves Better Than Anyone Could Ever Manage Them. Their Fire Comes From Within, Not From Without. Their Motivation Is Internal, Not External.

Love Is A Verb. Love Is Something You Do: The Sacrifices You Make, The Giving Of Self. If You Want To Study Love, Study Those Who Sacrifice For Others. Love - The Feeling - Is A Fruit Of Love The Verb.

When You Engage In A Work That Taps Your Talent And Fuels Your Passion-that Rises Out Of A Great Need In The World That You Feel Drawn By Conscience To Meet-therein Lies Your Voice, Your Calling, Your Soul's Code.

It Is Extremely Ironic That The More We Care About What People Think About Us The Less We Care About People, And The Less We Care About What People Think About Us The More We Begin To Care For Others

The Key Is Taking Responsibility And Initiative, Deciding What Your Life Is About And Prioritizing Your Life Around The Most Important Things.

It Takes A Great Deal Of Character Strength To Apologize Quickly Out Of One's Heart Rather Than Out Of Pity.

Reducing Children To A Test Score Is The Worst Form Of Identity Theft We Could Commit In Schools.

Intrinsic Security Doesn't Come From What Other People Think Of Us Or How They Treat Us. It Doesn't Come From Our Circumstance Or Out Position. It Comes From Within. It Comes From Accurate Paradigms And Correct Principles Deep In Our Own Mind And Heart. It Comes From Inside-out Congruence, From Living A Life Of Integrity In Which Our Daily Habits Reflect Our Deepest Values.

Habit 1: Be Proactive Habit 2: Begin With The End In Mind Habit 3: Put First Things First Habit 4: Think Win/win Habit 5: Seek First To Understand, Then To Be Understood Habit 6: Synergize Habit 7: Sharpen The Saw

To Know And Not To Do Is Not To Know.

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.

I Can Change. I Can Live Out Of My Imagination Instead Of My Memory. I Can Tie Myself To My Limitless Potential Instead Of My Limiting Past

How Many On Their Deathbeds Wished They'd Spent More Time At The Office - Or Watching Tv? The Answer Is, No One.

The Need To Leave A Legacy Is Our Spiritual Need To Have A Sense Of Meaning, Purpose, Personal Congruence, And Contribution.

Personal Leadership Is The Process Of Keeping Your Vision And Values Before You And Aligning Your Life To Be Congruent With Them.

Be Governed By Your Internal Compass, Not By Some Clock On The Wall.

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William Blackstone

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