Stephen Covey's The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People

Response Paper on Stephen Covey`s The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People
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Covey`s The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People is a very interesting and useful read for people belonging to all age groups and all the professions. There are certain generic characteristics in human nature that, if recognized, can lead a person to success in any profession at any step of his life. This book is very helpful in recognizing those traits in one`s personality and developing them further. Covey`s main idea is that every individual is capable of great deeds if provided the right surroundings and enough space to explore one`s own personality traits. According to Covey, there are certain character ethic principles that have been forgotten by most people these days and instead, certain quick fix principles are being used. Those principles of character ethic have been described as universal and effective in any time period.
In Part One of the book, Covey describes the effect of principles of character ethic on his own life and how he found out about them. This was one of the most inspiring parts of the book. Covey describes the change in the personality of his son due the change in the perception of his own and his wife. Initially, his son had problems with social interaction, he was unable to focus on his academic studies and he was not good at athletics. Covey describes that he and his wife tried to motivate their son using the quick fix principles that are effective communication, personality growth and positive mental attitude; however these tools resulted in opposite results. There was no change in their son`s personality. Then Covey researched literature regarding success and the factors that can help a person be successful. Only then did he realize that the factors that actually result in success have been forgotten for over fifty years. Such factors are; integrity, humility, fidelity, temperance, courage, justice, patience, industry, simplicity, and modesty.
According to Covey, our character is a consolidated form of our habits. The maxim given in the book is; "Sow a thought, read an action; sow an action, reap a habit; sow a habit, reap a character; sow a character, reap a destiny." Thus, from this maxim it can be inferred that to change one`s destiny, thought is the point of origin. Thought is the point where everything starts.
Covey describes habits as consistent and unconscious patterns that express our character and define our effectiveness or ineffectiveness. In order to change one`s personality, a person might need to change his habits. Habits are very hard to change and Covey compares the change in habit to the landing of man on the moon. The initial few minutes of the journey took most fuel than the next several days in order to break out of the gravitational pull of the Earth. Habits are also like that gravitational pull; a person requires so much of ener...