7 Habits of Highly Effective People

Habit 1: Be Productive

“Habit one is the key to unlocking all the other habits and that’s why it comes first. It says. “I am the captain of my life. I can choose my attitude. I’m responsible for my own happiness or unhappiness. I am in the driver’s seat of my destiny, not just a passenger.”

I think that being productive really does help you become successful because if you’re lazy and you never do anything then you’re not going to go very far in life. When you’re productive you can make a difference and actually do things that will benefit you and help you reach your goals in life. Productiveness will give you success people are going to look at you and they will admire you for the things that you have accomplished and the things you are willing to accomplish. Being productive means that you are willing to think differently make decisions different from others and not being afraid to do them. You will find better choices and you will go against the current but that won’t stop you because you have to be willing to do what others don’t do.

Habit 2: Begin with the end in mind

“Control your own destiny or someone else will.” (Jack Welch)

It helps to start with the end in mind. When you start a new objective in life it’s good to start with how much you are going to gain and accomplish from all of this. That motivates you to keep going even if you feel like you can’t do it you have to think about the good that will be in the end and hoe happy you’ll feel when you finish. I always like to think about my reward at the end of the road when a start anything new, it keeps me motivated and help me finish to the end. When we just start something without thinking about the end in mind, it is most likely that you will give up. You will give up because you don’t thinking of what’s waiting for you at the end of the road and you don’t have anything to motivate. I really like this quote by Jack Welch because it speaks the truth; if we don’t make our own choices and follow our goals and dreams we aren’t going to go anywhere. When we don’t make our own paths someone else will make them for us and it’s probably going to be a path that we aren’t happy with, but that is what we get for not making any decisions of our own and choosing to go down our own paths and make our destiny what we want. I wouldn’t want anyone but me to make my destiny because only I know what I want to accomplish and what my goals in life are.

Habit 3: Put First Things First

“Organize and execute around priorities.”

You always have to put the most important things in your life first. When you don’t you get distracted with other thing that just waste your time and drive you away from your goals. For examples our homework, as soon as we get home we should start on it right away because if not we get distracted doing other thing and then we’re never going to get it done. I do this a lot and it is something that I am working on improving in my life because I know the consequences that come out of not prioritizing yourself. When you put of doing what needs to get done you fall behind and the next thing you know there is no way that you can catch up. Trust me it is better to put of watching TV or just being on your phone when it comes to doing what needs to get done. When you prioritize yourself and do what need to be done first you get to go it at the pace that you want and you don’t have to worry about getting everything done last minute.

Habit 4: Think Win-Win

“Think win-win or no deal.”

You always need to think positively and with a good attitude because we don’t know what the outcome of something will be. You’re not always going to win and you have to be happy for those who did because just as you worked hard they also worked hard as well. Also even if you didn’t win you can always try again and know you have the experience and know what to work on so that you can improve. When we are selfish and only care about wining people around you will not like you because you have a selfish attitude and you can’t even congratulate someone for their hard work. Having a positive attitude helps because when you only think about wining and don’t see that there could be the possible outcome of you losing, you’re setting yourself up for a huge disappointment in the future. It is always great to think that you can win but you also have to think about other probabilities and possible outcomes. 

Habit 5: Seek First to Understand then to be Understood

“Diagnose before you prescribe.”

Sometimes you don’t know what someone is going through and they might not want to talk about it, you should always be considerate and try to understand what that person is going through. For some people it’s harder than other for them to express themselves and you have to give them time and let them explain themselves. We need to pay more attention to what others feel and listen to what they are going through. This will help us as people because we all need to learn how to listen to others. People aren’t going to want to be around you if all you are interested in is yourself. You can more friends listening then talking. 

Habit 6: Synergize

The whole is greater than the sum of its part (1+1=3)

Some of you may ask what is synergize? Synergize is when you are able to cooperate, to be able to work in a team, to have open mindedness, and the adventure of finding new solutions to old problems. It’s very important for everyone to have these qualities in them because they make you a great person. When you are bale to h work with people with no trouble the work gets done fast and easy. Unlike when you are being stubborn and you aren’t willing to listen to others opinions and ideas. The work will not get finish on time and you are giving everyone around a hard time when you can simply cooperate with them. 

Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw

Four Dimensions of Self-Renewal: Physical, Mental, Spiritual, and Social/Emotional

I think that renewing yourself is definitely something that we should all do because if not then we’re overwhelmed and we can’t do things right. Renewing ourselves helps us work better and it’s something that our body needs. Sometimes we are really stressed out because of school or work and our body can’t handle all of that pressure that it’s carrying. There are some ways that we could help our body relieve some of that pressure. For example we can make sure that we get the right amount of sleep, make sure that we eat healthy foods, exercise and take some time off every once in a while. We are only human after all our body can’t handle everything and it shouldn’t have to.

Reflection:
All of the seven habits are important to follow is you wan to become someone successful in life. I honestly think that these habits can help you become a better person and help you with your life. I'm going to apply these seven habits into my life and see for myself just how effective these habits can be. I think that the most effective one will be, well all of them because you can't do one with out doing the other. One of the habits that I really like is habit seven, Sharpen the Saw, because I think this is something us as human forget to do a lot, we forget to give ourselves some time and relax and take care of our bodies. Another habit that I really like is habit five, Seek First to Understand Than to be Understood, I like this habit because as humans sometimes we don't take the time to understand the people around us and listen to what they're going through because we are trying to get through our own things. But i think that we should listen more and try to understand people before making any assumptions about them because what ever it is that they are going through, we might also be going through the same thing or might have already gone through what they're going through and we can help them. Those are my favorite habits I'm sure that everyone has their own and as long as you follow these habits it's fine with me.   

Three Fundamental Techniques in Handling People

Dale Carnegie

Technique 1: Don’t criticize, condemn or complain.

“If you want to gather honey, don’t kick over the beehive.”

It’s not nice having someone criticizing everything that you do, who like’s that, no body. Complaining doesn’t help either. You never know how much someone has worked for something even if it’s something small, and when we criticize or complain about it all we do is hurt those people’s feelings. Condemning people for the things they have worked for is not good you hurt those people’s feeling and you’re not helping yourself either. Who is going to want to be friends with someone who is always condemning, complaining and criticizing them and others? Well no one, apart from being disliked no will ever want to help you if you ever need it because all they are going to think about is your bad attitude and nobody is going to want to be around that. This is why it’s better to tell people that they did a great job and that their hard work paid off. You will make that person feel good about them and people are going to like you because you’re not someone who is condemning them all the time. Only we know how hard we worked for something and to have someone give bad criticism and condemn us about our work without them knowing how hard we worked for it, does not feel good.

Technique 2: Give honest and sincere appreciation.

“The big secret in dealing with people”

I think that it is always better be strait up when you don’t like someone because having to pretend that you like the person and faking being a good friend will always end up badly. Also it’s very likely that you will make the person feel bad knowing that you were just pretending to be their friend. It never feels good when someone we think we can call a friend turns out to just be pretending to be your friend. A person feels good about themselves when someone truly cares and appreciates them. Just think that you found out that someone you thought was your friend turned out to not like you and they didn’t even want to be your friend. We all have people who appreciate us and we will always have people who don’t but I think that those people who don’t are not important. More than anything I feel bad for those people because maybe they’re just jealous that you have people in your life who truly appreciate you and care for you. I feel bad for these people because they’re probably surrounded by fallacious people and they are jealous when they see honest appreciation being shown to someone. I always show someone my true appreciation; I show them that I honestly care for them. If I ever run across someone that I don’t like I just stay away from them because I don’t want to have to act like I like them and then go and say that I don’t. 

Technique 3: Arouse in the other person an eager want.

“”He who can do this has the whole world with him. He, who cannot, walks a lonely way.”

I think that this quote when applied to life can indeed help you go very far because when you make other people eager about wanted to do something with their lives the appreciation that that person will have to you is the best reward. When we motivate people we help them see the great things that they can achieve in their lives as well as how good of a person they can be. Many people just need some encouragement to get themselves going because sometimes they don’t think that they can do something but as soon as someone gets them excited and motivated there is nothing that can stop them. It’s good to help people out when they need a little push in life because you never know when you’re going to need a push yourself. I like motivating people because I like to see that energy they get and that determination in their eye. There are people who only like to drag people down but these people aren’t going to get anywhere doing things like that.

Happy New Year’s!

During this Christmas vacation I didn’t really do anything interesting. My days mainly consisted of me sleeping in and watching TV.  I used this vacation to rest and get my things organized, during the day I would read, watch TV, or work on homework. On Christmas I spent the day with my family, and then we had diner together. It was really nice to see my cousins again I hadn’t seen them in a while so it was a very nice Christmas. This year I didn’t really get presents, but I didn’t mind because I got $500 instead that I spent on things I wanted, if you ask me that was better. When the New Year’s rolled around I was really excited. I couldn’t wait to do the countdown and yell happy New Year’s. Everyone hugging each other and fireworks going off, I love that so much. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to do any of that because it seems that I’m getting older than I thought. This year I couldn’t stay awake until midnight to do the New Year’s countdown I couldn’t understand why that was but I was very disappointed. What made matters worse was that I woke up at 12:07 due to all the New Year’s celebrating! Actually there is something worse, after being woken up I couldn’t go back to sleep but everyone else in my house was also asleep! I had to hear everyone celebrating the New Year’s while I was stuck trying to go back to sleep which seemed impossible. In the end I didn’t go back to sleep until three in the morning, it was a very disappointing New Year’s but at least it’s one that I won’t forget anytime soon.