The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Synopsis & Review
Overview
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People is a modern re-packaging of ancient wisdom distilled into seven ‘habits’. What you’ll be surprised to learn is that one can best achieve their goals not by domination or manipulation but by living a principled life in the service of others.
The Habits
Habit 1: Be Proactive
Do not let things happen to you, be proactive by taking responsibility for how you act. Part of this is being responsibe for how you respond. The word ‘responsible’ can be broken down into ‘respon-ible’; it means taking ownership of your responses. Focus on what you can control and be indifferent to that which you cannot control. In doing so you will take authorship of your future. This is essentially just the ancient greek philosophy of Stoicism.
Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind
Now that you have taken authorship of your own story, start writing it! Begin a life-long journey of looking deeply inside yourself to discover your principles and live by them with integrity. One exercise you can do is to imagine your funeral and how you would want to be remembered as people from different aspects of your life speak about you. Start being that person right now! To achieve a goal you must be in harmony with the principles that govern the results, that means you should start by projecting the character of the person who would achieve the goals you are aiming for.
Habit 3: Put First Things First
“Don’t prioritise your schedule, schedule your priorities”.
Now that you know what your goals and values are you should prioritise them. Don’t let what is urgent distract you from what is important, most people fall into this trap. The author describes a time management system in detail to help you with this.
Habit 4: Think Win/Win
Most worthwhile goals cannot be achieved without the collaboration of others which is why interdependence trumps independence. At the heart of the interdependent paradigm is the idea of a win/win. If you identify a scenario that will not result in a win/win for you and an associate then call it quits! There will be other opportunities in future and by passing on a win/lose you will have preserved your emotional bank account with that person who would otherwise have had to be the ‘loser’. Because people are so important to interdependence the author advises that we:
“Be efficient with things and slow with people”.
Habit 5: Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood
In my opinion the most simple and profound takeaway from this whole book. Most of the time people do not listen, they simply wait their turn to speak. Living a principle-centred life in an interdependent paradigm means you must have good relationships with others and empathic listening is key to this. Empathic listening requires you to listen with your eyes and heart as well as your ears — with both sides of your brain. When someone is speaking from a place of emotion you should respond with emotion rather than logic. You will find that if you continue to do this they will usually talk themselves to a place where they invite your input at which point you can engage your logical brain. Another reason to seek first to understand is because you might actually learn something! Never underestimate your capacity to be wrong, there is always at least something to learn from another’s point of view.
Habit 6: Synergize
All the other habits prepare you to achieve the miracle of synergy. This is interdependence in action and where great goals are achieved. There is nothing else like synergy, the feeling of bouncing off of others to create something greater than any one of you could individually have thought of or achieved. Most people see two ways forward: their way and the wrong way. In reality there is usually a third synergistic alternative that will create a win/win.
Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw
“I don’t have time to sharpen the saw, I’m too busy sawing”.
You cannot successfully implement the other habits without taking some time to look after and improve yourself. The author suggests regularly ‘renewing’ four different ‘dimensions’ of your nature: physical, mental, social/emotional, and spiritual.
Examples activities for each might be:
- Physical — exercise, yoga
- Mental — reading, visualising, planning, writing.
- Social/emotional — spending time with loved ones, helping others, empathic listening.
- Spiritual — this is very specific to the individual!
Closing thoughts
Personally I think this may actually be the most compelling book I’ve read to date, it has already made me implement changes in my life and I believe this momentum will continue long into the future; It is truly a timeless classic that I intend to return to many times over the years. One of the things I most enjoyed are anecdotes that the author shares some of which are quite moving. The mixture of intellectual and emotional engagement may be what helps the lessons of this book resonate so strongly with its readers.
If you decide to read/listen to this book I highly recommend the audiobook read by the author himself as he is an excellent speaker with a unique warmth and charisma that makes his voice nice to listen to in and of itself.
