The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

What are the 7 habits?

1. Be proactive
2. Begin with the end in mind
3. Put first things first
4. Think win/win
5. Seek first to understand, then to be understood
6. Synergize
7. Sharpen the saw

Exercise to help my understand what I value. Thinking about the end will help me begin with the end in mind. Ask myself what would I like each of the following people to say about me at my funeral?

• Family member
• Friend
• Work associate
• Church associate

Leadership is providing direction and ensuring that I and others are working on the right things. Management is efficiently getting things done well.

Management is climbing the ladder. Leadership is making sure the ladder is leaning against the right wall.

I need to exercise leadership in my own life, not just management.

Exercises such as imagining when I will die soon can help clarify my values.

You can rewrite your scripts for how to handle situations through affirmation and visualization.

A good affirmation is emotional, personal, present tense, and positive. For example, "It is deeply satisfying that I respond with wisdom and love and self-control when someone cuts me off in traffic."

The more specifically and immersively I visualize reacting how I want to react the easier it will be to do so next time.

Long term planning: mission > roles > goals

Weekly planning: roles > goals > plans > schedule/delegate

Begin with the end in mind: The end of my life is when I die. When I die, what will matter and what will I value? Certainly not my possessions. Those end with my life. What do I believe can exist after death? My character. My family relationships. My relationship with God.

How to conduct weekly planning

• List roles
• List one to three goals for each role for the week
• Plan a time to do each goal

How to make a team mission statement

• Brainstorm - Start by gathering all key team members. Remind team members of the goal of this exercise. Encourage them to be creative. There are no bad ideas. Ask them to begin by sharing their ideas of your organization’s purpose and vision, and record the answers so that everyone can see them.
• What does your team want to be known for?
• What kind of workplace do we want to have?
• What do we want to achieve?
• What unique contributions can we make?
• Prioritize - As a team, assign a value or rank to each idea or theme that was proposed in the brainstorming step. Which themes are rising to the top?
• Refine - Now that you have your top five to seven ideas or themes, you can start to refine them to shape a mission statement. Work collaboratively to create a draft of the statement, with the end goal of one concise paragraph. Keep refining it until you get closer to consensus.
• Finalize - Reach a final consensus on your team’s mission statement.

Ways to sharpen the saw

Physical

• Exercise (aerobic, strength, flexibility)
• Eat food, mostly plants, not too much‍

Spiritual

• Pray
• Study
• Meditate‍

Mental

• Read widely
• Write essays
• Classes, courses, films, videos, etc.
• Write good letters‍

Social/Emotional

• Practicing habits 4-6 in day to day situations
• Service