What are the habits of Stephen Covey? Here's the first part

there are literally thousands of success books out there so why should this one be any different 

Stephen researched the last 200 years of success literature and found something quite interesting in the last 50 years 

most of the books have been focused on the personality ethic like public image, how you dress,  how you perform in social interactions

positive mental attitude skills and techniques to get people to behave in certain ways 

these books focus on how to appear rather than how to actually be

the seven Habits of Highly Effective focuses on the character ethic rather than the personality ethic

 in the words of Stephen Covey almost all the literature in the first 150 years focused on what could be called the character ethic

 as the foundation for success…. things like integrity, humility, courage , patience, simplicity, modesty

 and the Golden Rule : the character ethic taught that there are basic principles of effective living and that people can only experience true success in enduring happiness as they learn and integrate these principles into their basic character

the personality ethic is above the water

the character ethic is below the water

it forms a foundation

it's where the greatest impact over the long term 

 it's where you saw the seeds of greatness 

the problem is that people don't focus on the foundation

they focus on the appearance 

they're looking  for shortcuts and quick fixes but there are no shortcuts

 there is no quick fix program but if you endure and apply the following habits you will absolutely achieve your goals and it will help you develop better relationships 

let's jump into the seven Habits

 habit one is be proactive

 let's look at something called the circle of concern and the circle of influence

 the circle of concern consists of all the things that are out of your control like the weather, politics, what people think of you

 the economy ,other people's mistakes and other people's opinions

 the circle of influence consists of all the things you can control, your attitude, what you read, what skills you learn, your enthusiasm

 how you spend your free time and who you spend it with, your habits and hobbies and so on

 with that said

there are two ways to live life…….. you can either be reactive or proactive

 reactive people complain about the things that are out of their control, their environment and outside forces affect,their performance and their mood

additionally they don't take action or ownership of the things that they can control and then

 you have the other type of person they are proactive

 this type of person realizes that their decisions determine their life not their conditions

 proactive people don't complain about things they can't control additionally they take action to improve the things that they can control

proactive people understand that sometimes we may not have complete control over a certain situation but we can control how we respond to a situation so let's look at an example of how a proactive and a reactive person responds to the same situation

 two people take a test and then they both fail

 one blames a teacher and gives up

 the other takes responsibility and ownership, studies harder and tries to improve themselves

 the reactive person complains about how bad the teacher is and the proactive person asks what can I do

 they look at themselves first instead of blaming and complaining 

don't focus on what you can't control focus on what you can control

 take responsibility and keep in mind as you become more proactive within your circle of influence 

this habit alone can have a huge impact on your life

 in life you either act or you're acted upon