The Wisdom and Teachings of Stephen R. Covey
By Stephen R. Covey
- Accountability breeds responsibility.
- To change anything in life, you must change.
- With no involvement, there’s no commitment.
- Never be so busy sawing that you do not have time to sharpen the saw.
- No one can hurt you without your consent. You have the power to choose your response.
- Happiness, like unhappiness, is a choice that each of us have the ability to choose.
- I am not a product of my circumstances, I am a product of my decisions.
- If you want to change things, work on the one thing that you have control over: yourself.
- By making small changes, you can eventually change the entire culture of what you do.
- Our behavior is a function of our decisions, not our circumstances.
- A mental attitude of “it can’t be done” usually results in a self-fulfilled prophecy.
- Until a person can say, “I am what I am today because of the choices I make” they will not change the present or future.
- Be a model, not a critic
- Often the enemy of great is good.
- The key to life is not accumulation but contribution.
- The most important work we will do is confined within the four walls of our own home.
- The greatest risk is risk-less living.
- Many think you can only be tough or nice, but you can be both.
- Anytime that we think the problem is “out there,” that is the real problem.
- It is possible to be busy, very busy, without being effective.
- You can be a transition person, a change between the past and future.
- Don’t be seduced by your own autobiography.
- Most people do not listen to understand, they listen to reply. They are filtering what is said and preparing their answer, instead of listening to understand.
- Words are like eggs that are dropped from a great height, you can’t call them back but you can avoid the mess it makes.
- What we are communicates much louder than what we say or do.
- We cannot have a public successful victory unless we first have a private successful victory.
- Management works on the system while leadership works in the system.
- How you treat the individual determine how you’ll treat the many because ultimately the many are individuals.
- In relationships, the little things are big things.
- Find your voice and help other people find their’s.
- Undisciplined people become slaves of their emotions and feelings.
- If you want to be trusted, be trustworthy.
- People usually trust people whose lives are found on solid principles. Character makes trustworthy.
- Trust is a glue in life, and it holds relationships together.
- To change ourselves, we must first change our perception.
- We are what we repeatedly do.
- Plans are worthless, but planning is invaluable – Peter Drucker