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A Pleasant Recall   

It was almost 8 years ago when I was first saw this book lying in my cousin's house in Bombay. She has been working in ICICI in a very high position requiring good leadership (I am not saying managerial) skills. No wonder it was the right choice for her to outshine. It was true that nothing went to my head when I had made a casual attempt to browse through the book. Of course I need to admit that I was very young that time though I was a sophomore.
It was after 6 years, I made a genuine attempt to at least understand the basic seven habits when I found the same book lying in my brother's place in Pune. Since my brother played so much in my life, naturally I was influenced.

But it was off-late, the past nine months, we have been doing a good survey on this. (We refers to few of my collegues, Anand, Santhosh and Rao apart from myself) It was indeed the efforts made by Anand to the maximum extent, I got interested.

First the seven habits:

  • Be proactive
  • Begin with an end in mind
  • Put first things first
  • Seek first to understand then be understood
  • Think Win-Win
  • Synergize
  • Sharpen the saw

    Some of the essence from the Book which were thought provoking for me:

    A nice say for the so-called Paradigm-shift:

    "It becomes obvious that if we want to make relatively minor changes in our live, we can appropriately focus on our attitudes and behaviours. 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 internalised values."

    "I am what I am today because of the choices I made yesterday."

    "Private victories precede public victories"

    "No one can hurt you without your consent. It is not what others do or our own mistakes that hurt us the most; it is our response to those things. Chasing after the poisonous snake that bites us will only drive the poison through our entire system. By making and keeping promises to ourselves and others, little by little, our honour becomes greater than our moods."

    Some of the thoughts are told by Gandhi too. Bharathiyar - the great poet of TamilNadu (India) said, Pagaivanukku arulvai sivasakthi. Hence this is not something new what Covey says, but nevertheless, thought-provoking.

    Click here to see two pictures that test your perception skills

    An interesting story about Time Management

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