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7 Habits of Highly Effective People

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Submitted By zbay4
Words 1278
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Zach Bayreuther
3-5-13
Leadership Studies 251

“Two Habits I Need to Work on” When reading the book Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, written by Stephen R. Covey, I learned that I need to work on some things, if I want to be successful. I need to set specific goals because goals are what drive people to be successful. Covey talks about a “Paradigm Shift” and wants his readers to change their mindset. He proposes seven habits that effective people portray throughout their life and he wants everybody to pick these up in order to be more successful. The two habits that I am going to focus on are Habit 1: Be Proactive, and Habit 4: Think Win-Win. I want to focus on these two because when reading about these two, I feel that if I can improve these habits, I can bolster my mindset/life. I feel that everybody can be more proactive. This is Covey’s first habit. This habit discusses that your decisions are the primary factor for determining effectiveness in your life. You have to take responsibility for your choices and the consequences that follow your decisions. You choose if you are happy or sad. Every second that you live, you decide what you are doing with your life. Covey then says that if you’re not happy with your life, change it. It only takes one decision. However, it starts with one decision but that one may trigger a bunch of others. You cannot blame everything on your parents or grandparents. Covey talks about two different people in this chapter. There are proactive and reactive people. Proactive people realize that they are responsible for their lives. They take full responsibility for their decisions. On the other hand, reactive people are affected by their physical and social environment. They will blame their actions on anything that they can find to blame it on. The example that Covey uses in the book is if the weather is

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