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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.

-Stephen Covey

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When We Listen With

Stephen Covey

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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.

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More From Stephen Covey

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.

World Religions

To Receive Gratitude With Grace Is A Form Of Gratitude By Itself, And Not Always An Easy Art To Master.

Success In One Role Can't Justify Failure In Another.

To Be Successful We Must Live From Our Imaginations, Not From Our Memories.

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

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.

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.

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.

Opposition Is A Natural Part Of Life. Just As We Develop Our Physical Muscles Through Overcoming Opposition - Such As Lifting Weights - We Develop Our Character Muscles By Overcoming Challenges And Adversity.

We Value The Clock For Its Speed And Efficiency. The Clock Has Its Place, Efficiency Has Its Place, After Effectiveness. The Symbol Of Effectiveness Is The Compass A Sense Of Direction, Purpose, Vision, Perspective, And Balance. But The Empowerment Process Itself Is Not Efficient.

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

Effective Interdependence Can Only Be Built On True Independence.

Interdependence

True Independence

All Things Are Created Twice. There's A Mental Or First Creation, And A Physical Or Second Creation To All Things

Technology And Tools Are Useful And Powerful When They Are Your Servant And Not Your Master.

Being Is Seeing In The Human Dimension.

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.

Suppose You Were To Come Upon Someone In The Woods Working Feverishly To Saw Down A Tree. "what Are You Doing?" You Ask. "can't You See?" Comes The Impatient Reply. "i'm Sawing Down This Tree." "you Look Exhausted!" You Exclaim. "how Long Have You Been At It?" "over Five Hours," He Returns, "and I'm Beat! This Is Hard Work." 'well, Why Don't You Take A Break For A Few Minutes And Sharpen That Saw?" You Inquire. "i'm Sure It Would Go A Lot Faster." "i Don't Have Time To Sharpen The Saw," The Man Says Emphatically. "i'm Too Busy Sawing!"

Happen To Things, Don't Let Things Happen To You

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

Whether Or Not We Belong To A Church Or Service Organization Or Have A Job That Provides Meaningful Service Opportunities, Not A Day Goes By That We Can't At Least Serve One Other Human Being By Making Deposits Of Unconditional Love.

Unconditional Love

The Deepest Desire Of The Human Spirit Is To Be Acknowledged.

Interdependency Follows Independence.

We Accomplish All That We Do Through Delegation - Either To Time Or To Other People.

But Borrowing Strength Builds Weakness.

Personal Development

Sometimes Poor Behavior Is Simply Bad Execution Of Good Intent.

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.

Self Confidence

Decisions We Make

Vision Is Seeing A Future State With The Mind's Eye. Vision Is Applied Imagination.

Difference Is The Beginning Of Synergy.

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

Interpersonal Skills

While Values Drive Behaviors, Principles Govern Consequences.

Affirm People. Affirm Your Children. Believe In Them, Not In What You See But In What You Don't See - Their Potential.

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

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.

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

Priorities In Life

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 Establish, Grow, Extend, And Restore Trust Is The Key Professional And Personal Competency Of Our Time.

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.

It Is Possible To Be Busy-very Busy-without Being Very Effective.

Climbing The Ladder

Ladder Of Success

The Character Ethic, Which I Believe To Be The Foundation Of Success, Teaches That There Are Basic Principles Of Effective Living, And That People Can Only Experience True Success And Enduring Happiness As They Learn And Integrate These Principles Into Their Basic Character.

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

Courage Isn't Absenct Of Fear, It Is The Awareness That Something Else Is Important

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.

All Broken Relationships Can Be Traced Back To Broken Agreements

Broken Relationship

...to Learn And Not To Do Is Really Not To Learn. To Know And Not To Do Is Really Not To Know.

Begin Each Day With The Blueprint Of My Deepest Values Firmly In Mind Then When Challenges Come, Make Decisions Based On Those Values.

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.

The Enemy Of The "best" Is Often The "good."

Priorities In Life

Perhaps The Most Important Vision Of All Is Develop A Sense Of Self, A Sense Of Your Own Destiny, A Sense Of Unique Mission And Role In Life.

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.

You Have To Decide What Your Highest Priorities Are And Have The Courage—pleasantly, Smilingly, Nonapologetically, To Say “no” To Other Things. And The Way You Do That Is By Having A Bigger “yes” Burning Inside. The Enemy Of The “best” Is Often The “good.

I Love Interaction With Audiences. If Were My Choice, I Would Spend Most Of My Time Interacting With Audiences. Walking Around And Asking Them To Challenge Me.

Role Modeling Is The Most Basic Responsibility Of Parents. Parents Are Handing Life's Scripts To Their Children, Scripts That In All Likelihood Will Be Acted Out For The Rest Of The Children's Lives.

Communication Is The Most Important Single Activity Of Man.

The Human Will Is An Amazing Thing. Time After Time, It Has Triumphed Against Unbelievable Odds.

A Personal Mission Statement Becomes The Dna For Every Other Decision We Make.

Decisions We Make

Interdependence Is A Higher Value Than Independence

Our Lives Are The Results Of Our Choices. To Blame And Accuse Other People, The Environment, Or Other Extrinsic Factors Is To Choose To Empower Those Things To Control Us.

The Great Apparent Dichotomy Is That The More We Give, The More We Get.

Law Of Attraction

'efficient' Scheduling And Control Of Time Are Often Counterproductive. The Efficiency Focus Creates Expectations That Clash With The Opportunities To Develop Rich Relationships, To Meet Human Needs, And To Enjoy Spontaneous Moments On A Daily Basis.

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

When Air Is Charged With Emotions, An Attempt To Teach Is Often Perceived As A Form Of Judgment And Rejection.

When You Show Deep Empathy Toward Others, Their Defensive Energy Goes Down, And Positive Energy Replaces It. That's When You Can Get More Creative In Solving Problems.

The Challenge Of Work-life Balance Is Without Question One Of The Most Significant Struggles Faced By Modern Man.

People Who End Up With The Good Jobs Are The Proactive Ones Who Are Solutions To Problems, Not Problems Themselves, Who Seize The Initiative To Do Whatever Is Necessary To Get The Job Done.

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

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

"you Can Buy A Person's Hand, But You Can't Buy Their Heart. His Heart Is Where His Enthusiasm, His Loyalty Is. You Can Buy His Back, But You Can't Buy His Brain. That's Where His Creativity Is, His Ingenuity, His His Resourcefulness."

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

If You Organize Your Family Life To Spend Even Ten Or Fifteen Minutes A Morning Reading Something That Connects You With These Timeless Principles, Its Almost Guaranteed That You Will Make Better Choices During The Day--in The Family, On The Job, In Every Dimension Of Life. Your Thoughts Will Be Higher. Your Interactions Will Be More Satisfying. You Will Have A Greater Perspective. You Will Increase That Space Between What Happens To You And Your Response To It. You Will Be More Connected To What Really Matters Most.

I Win The Private Victory When I Have Made My Mind Up And Commit To Live By Correct Principles And To Serve Worthy Purposes.

The World Has Entered An Era Of The Most Profound And Challenging Change In Human History.

Without Exception, Empathy Is Always Appropriate.

When We Value Correct Principles, We Have Truth - A Knowledge Of Things As They Are.

We Must Never Be Too Busy To Take Time To Sharpen The Saw.

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.

If You Focus On Principles, You Empower Everyone Who Understands Those Principles To Act Without Constant Monitoring, Evaluating, Correcting, Or Controlling.

The Fire Inside People Is Like A Match; The Way To Ignite That Flame Is Initially Through Friction, Then Other Matches Are Lit Through Warmth.

The Essence Of The Best Thinking In The Area Of Time Management (practice Planning) Can Be Captured In A Single Phrase: Organize And Execute Around Priorities

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

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

You Can't Hold Someone Accountable For Results If You Supervise Their Methods.

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.

Management Is Efficiency In Climbing The Ladder Of Success; Leadership Determines Whether The Ladder Is Leaning Against The Right Wall.

Live Out Of Your Imagination, Not Your History.

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

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.

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

Remember, Technology Is A Great Servant, But A Terrible Master.

If I Were To Summarize In One Sentence The Single Most Important Principle I Have Learned In The Field Of Interpersonal Relations, It Would Be This: Seek First To Understand, Then To Be Understood. This Principle Is The Key To Effective Interpersonal Communication.

We Don't Invent Our Missions, We Detect Them.

The Most Important Ingredient We Put Into Any Relationship Is Not What We Say Or What We Do, But What We Are. And If Our Words And Our Actions Come From Superficial Human Relations Techniques (the Personality Ethic) Rather Than From Our Own Inner Core (the Character Ethic), Others Will Sense That Duplicity. We Simply Won't Be Able To Create And Sustain The Foundation Necessary For Effective Interdependence.

The Amateur Salesman Sells Products; The Professional Sells Solutions To Needs And Problems.

Interpersonal Skills

We Develop Our Character Muscles By Overcoming Challenges And Obstacles.

It Is One Thing To Make A Mistake, And Quite Another Thing Not To Admit It.

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 Begin With The End In Mind Means To Start With A Clear Understanding Of Your Destination. It Means To Know Where You're Going So That You Better Understand Where You Are Now And So That The Steps You Take Are Always In The Right Direction.

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

A Moment Of Choice Is A Moment Of Truth.

Moment Of Truth

When Life Does Not Go Our Way Or We Inadvertently Make A Mistake, It Is So Easy To Make Excuses, Place Blame On Others, Or Argue That Circumstances Were Against Us. But We Only Progress In Life To The Extent That We Take Responsibility For Our Actions And Attitudes, And Put Forth The Initiative Necessary To Create Our Own Circumstances.

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

What Is Common Sense Isn't Common Practice.

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.

Power Is The Faculty Or Capacity To Act, The Strength And Potency To Accomplish Something. It Is The Vital Energy To Make Choices And Decisions. It Also Includes The Capacity To Overcome Deeply Embedded Habits And To Cultivate Higher, More Effective Ones.

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.

It Is One Thing To Make A Mistake, And Quite Another Thing Not To Admit It. People Will Forgive Mistakes, Because Mistakes Are Usually Of The Mind, Mistakes Of Judgment. But People Will Not Easily Forgive The Mistakes Of The Heart, The Ill Intention, The Bad Motives, The Prideful Justifying Cover-up Of The First Mistake.

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.

The Key To Acting With Integrity Is To Simply Stop Playing The Game.

Executives Need To Understand The Economic Benefits Of Trust Dividend, Especially When The Behavior Is Real, Not Artificially Or Superficially Created As Pr To Manipulate Trust.

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.

The Process Of Building Trust Is An Interesting One, But It Begins With Yourself, With What I Call Self Trust, And With Your Own Credibility, Your Own Trustworthiness. If You Think About It, It's Hard To Establish Trust With Others If You Can't Trust Yourself.

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

Frustration Is A Function Of Our Expectations, And Our Expectations Are Often A Reflection Of The Social Mirror Rather Than Our Own Values And Priorities.

It's Easy To Say ''no!'' When There's A Deeper ''yes!'' Burning Inside.

All Things Are Created Twice. All Things. Vision Is The First Creation. For A House It's Called The Blueprint. For A Life It's Called A Mission. For A Day It's Called A Goal And A Plan. For A Parent It's Called A Belief In The Unseen Potential Of A Child. For All, It Is The Mental Creation Which Always Precedes The Physical, Or Second, Creation.

Sacrifice Really Means Giving Up Something Good For Something Better.

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

To Listen With Empathy Is The Most Important Human Skill.

The 8th Habit, Then, Is Not About Adding One More Habit To The 7 - One That Somehow Got Forgotten. It's About Seeing And Harnessing The Power Of A Third Dimension To The 7 Habits That Meets The Central Challenge Of The New Knowledge Worker Age. The 8th Habit Is To Find Your Voice And Inspire Others To Find Theirs.

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

Synergy Is Everywhere In Nature. If You Plant Two Plants Close Together, The Roots Commingle And Improve The Quality Of The Soil So That Both Plants Will Grow Better Than If They Were Separated. If You Put Two Pieces Of Wood Together, They Will Hold Much More Than The Total Weight Held By Each Separately. The Whole Is Greater Than The Sum Of Its Parts. One Plus One Equals Three Or More.

The Key To The 99 Is The One. Or, Put Another Way, The Key To The Group Is The One Individual. Think About The One, Talk To The One, Regard The One, Serve The One. If You Are Sincere And Constant, You Will Discover That Gradually Your Influence With The Many Will Be Magnified.

Trust Is The Highest Form Of Human Motivation.

Empathy Takes Time, And Efficiency Is For Things, Not People.

"if I Make Deposits Into An Emotional Bank Account With You Through Courtesy, Kindness, Honesty, And Keeping My Commitments To You, I Build Up A Reserve. Your Trust Toward Me Becomes Higher, And I Can Call Upon That Trust Many Times If I Need To. I Can Even Make Mistakes And That Trust Level, That Emotional Reserve, Will Compensate For It. My Communication May Not Be Clear, But You'll Get My Meaning Anyway. You Won't Make Me "an Offender For A Word." When The Trust Account Is High, Communication Is Easy, Instant, And Effective."

The Reflection Of The Current Social Paradigm Tells Us We Are Largely Determined By Conditioning And Conditions.

Link Yourself To Your Potential, Not To Your Past.

Response-ability Is The Ability To Choose Our Response To Any Circumstance Or Condition.

True Greatness Will Be Achieved Through The Abundant Mind That Works Selflessly - With Mutual Respect, For Mutual Benefit.

Seek To Understand Before You Seek To Be Understood.

Our Behavior Is A Function Of Our Decisions, Not Our Conditions.

When People Seriously Undertake To Identify What Really Matters Most To Them In Their Lives, What They Really Want To Be And Do, They Become Very Reverent. They Start To Think In Larger Terms Than Today And Tomorrow.

Writing Distills, Crystallizes, And Clarifies Thought.

Be Part Of The Solution, Not Part Of The Problem.

Building And Repairing Relationships Are Long-term Investments.

The Leader Is The One Who Climbs The Tallest Tree, Surveys The Entire Situation, And Yells, 'wrong Jungle!' ... Busy, Efficient Producers And Managers Often Respond ... 'shut Up! We're Making Progress!'

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.

Always Treat Your Employees Exactly As You Want Them To Treat Your Best Customers.

All Things Are Created Twice, But Not All First Creations Are By Conscious Design. 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 Outside Our Circle Of Influence To Shape Much Of Our Lives By Default. We Reactively Live The Scripts Handed To Us By Family, Associates, Other People's Agendas, The Pressures Of Circumstance - Scripts From Our Earlier Years, From Our Training, Our Conditioning.

The Key To Motivation Is Motive.

The Key To Motivation Is Motive. It's The Why. It's The Deeper Yes! Burning Inside That Makes It Easier To Say No To The Less Important.

We Are Product Of Neither Nature Nor Nurture; We Are A Product Of Choice, Because There Is Always A Space Between Stimulus And Response. As We Wisely Exercise Our Power To Choose Based On Principles, The Space Will Become Larger.

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.

Every Exaggeration Of The Truth Once Detected By Others Destroys Our Credibility And Makes All That We Do And Say Suspect.

Nothing Tastes As Good As Thin Feels.

A Good Affirmation Has Five Basic Ingredients: It's Personal, It's Positive, It's Present Tense, It's Visual, And It's Emotional.

To Know And Not To Do Is Not To Know.

Synergy Is The Highest Activity Of Life; It Creates New Untapped Alternatives; It Values And Exploits The Mental, Emotional, And Psychological Differences Between People.

Perhaps The Greatest Role Of Parenting, More Than Directing And Telling Children What To Do, [is] Helping [children] Connect With Their Own Gifts, Particularly Conscience.

If We Know How To Listen To Our Own Heart, We Can Listen To The Hearts Of Others.

There's Strong Data That, Within Companies, The No. 1 Reason For Ethical Violations Is The Pressure To Meet Expectations, Sometimes Unrealistic Expectations.

In The Long Run, You Can Never Accomplish A Worthy End With An Unworthy Means.

Most People Struggle With Life Balance Simply Because They Haven't Paid The Price To Decide What Is Really Important To Them.

Seek First To Understand, Then To Be Understood.

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

Want To Improve Your Relationships? See Love As A Verb Rather Than As A Feeling?

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.

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.

This Is The Single Most Powerful Investment We Can Ever Make In Life—investment In Ourselves, In The Only Instrument We Have With Which To Deal With Life And To Contribute.

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

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.

If You're Proactive, You Don't Have To Wait For Circumstances Or Other People To Create Perspective Expanding Experiences. You Can Consciously Create Your Own.

Integrity In The Moment Of Choice: Quality Of Life Depends On What Happens In The Space Between Stimulus And Response.

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

I Am Not A Product Of My Circumstances. I Am A Product Of My Decisions.

Basing Our Happiness On Our Ability To Control Everything Is Futile.

Pursuit Of Happiness

People Behave More On The Basis Of How They Feel Than How They Think; Unless There Are Good Feelings Between People, It Is Almost Impossible To Reason Intelligently.

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

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.

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

Personal Development

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.

Success Is When You Realize Obstacles You Face Are Challenges To Help You Become Better - And Your Response Equals The Challenge.

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?’

You Have Two Ears And One Mouth. Use Them Accordingly.

Two Ears And One Mouth

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.

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.

Highly Proactive People Don't Blame Circumstances, Conditions, Or Conditioning For Their Behavior. Their Behavior Is A Product Of Their Own Conscious Choice.

If You Don't Have Confidence In The Diagnosis, You Won't Have Confidence In The Prescription.

Have Confidence

Organize And Execute Around Priorities.

Put First Things First

Common Sense Is Not Always Common Practice.

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.

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

As People Enable Themselves To Achieve One Or Two Goals For The Year That Are Most Meaningful, They Will Find Power, Peace Of Mind, And Confidence In Their Abilities Because They Have Achieved What They Set Out To Accomplish. Your Commitment To Achieving What Matters Most Will Become The Foundation For Tremendous Accomplishments And Contributions. You Will Become The Change You Seek To Make.

You Have To Water The Flowers You Want To Grow.

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

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.

The Greatest Thing You Can Do For Your Children Is Love Your Spouse.

What Is Important To Another Person Must Be As Important To You As The Other Person Is To You

Look At The Weaknesses Of Others With Compassion, Not Accusation. It's Not What They're Not Doing Or Should Be Doing That's The Issue. The Issue Is Your Own Chosen Response To The Situation And What You Should Be Doing. If You Start To Think The Problem Is "out There," Stop Yourself. That Thought Is The Problem.

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

Without Involvement, There Is No Commitment. Mark It Down, Asterisk It, Circle It, Underline It. No Involvement, No Commitment.

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.

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.

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

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.

I Keep My Phone Number Unlisted And Rely On My Associates To Handle All Voice Mail, E-mail, Faxes.

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.

I Define Discipline As The Ability To Make + Keep Promises And To Honor Commitments.

Security Represents Your Sense Of Worth, Your Identity, Your Emotional Anchorage, Your Self-esteem, Your Basic Personal Strength Or Lack Of It.

By Behaving In Ways That Build Trust With One, You Build Trust With Many.

Each Of Us Guard A Gate Of Change That Can Only Be Opened From The Inside.

Emotional Appeal

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Richard Brautigan

Louis De Bernieres

George S. Kaufman

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