The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

1. Be Proactive 

"Habit 1 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."

Reflection: Being proactive is critical to be effective because you spend your time wisely and move forward. When you are proactive, you will do things correctly and not need to redo things because of mistakes you made by being reactive. By doing so, you will earn yourself free time and accomplishment. An example can be like doing your homework on time. When you get an assignment and you complete it when you get home rather than the weekend, you will have a week to yourself. Being proactive also allows you to have the time to make your path for your future. When you are reactive, you let the decisions you make carve out the life you'll get from the poor choices you made. Also, when you are proactive, you set a role of a leader. This is because by you being proactive and having more time to yourself, you can make choices to help others and yourself to become even more ahead in life. When you show these skills, people will see you as a leader. Someone that they look up to and would want to follow your positive steps. By being proactive, you will become really effective in your overall life. 

2. Begin with the End in Mind 

"Control your own destiny or someone else will"

Reflection: To begin with an end in mind to me means like, to begin with, the end of the goal. When you set up a goal and work on accomplishing the end task, you will more likely be able to accomplish it. By working on the end in mind, you will know what you want and how to get there. When you don't know what you want, your life will not be or go the way you want it to. An example can be like trying to get straight A's in every class. When you start with the mindset of achieving straight A's, you now made your path to being successful. When you just say that you want to get good grades or not even plan with the mindset at the end, you will not set yourself that far up to the success level. That is why you want to start with the end in mind to be highly effective. Being a highly effective person requires you to have a strong mindset. This is because you will know how to be effective with your time management and goals. To accomplish goals, you need to have a strong mindset or else you will give up or maybe forget about them. To not forget or give up, start with the end in mind to make sure you keep on striving until you achieve what you want. 

3. Put First Things First 

"Organize and execute around priorities"

Reflection: This habit will make you a very effective person. When you do things that are important first, you'll then have time to do things you want. An example can be like doing homework once you get home. Instead of playing video games, instead, you should study or finish your homework. This will give you time to play after without worrying about doing your homework. You'll be an effective person because doing priorities is more important than doing just the things you want. When you decide to do things that aren't that important, things go downhill. You will not give yourself enough time to do your priorities. This will make you be unorganized with your time and not an effective person at the end of the day. Having time management on your priorities will boost your effectiveness. 

4. Think Win-Win 

"Think win-win or no deal"

Reflection: This quote is great at making one a highly effective person. By thinking "win-win," you will be able to take chances. When you take chances, you open doors to success. That being said, this is why you should always have your mindset of winning. You never want to lose because then you will feel ineffective and unmotivated. When you have the mindset of winning, you have an advantage over others. This is because you have the mindset to win and that gives you the confidence to win and try to do things others will be afraid to do. This will make you a successful person because it opens opportunities for you. An example can be like in sports. If one player goes in with the mindset of winning, he'll push forward more than others. If he was to get hurt, he'll get back up and still give it his all. On the other hand, those who don't have that mindset, will just quit and not get back up when they are hurt. 

5. Seek First to Understand, then to be Understood

"Diagnose before you prescribe"

Reflection: I think this means that you should first listen to be taught, then apply to start teaching other people. This is a good way to be an effective person. By doing so, you'll become someone somebody looks up to. An example can be like teaching someone math problems at school. You can't just go around trying to help others if you can't even help yourself out answering your own questions. That is why you listen to the teacher, apply the knowledge, then proceed to help those when you master the task. If you start to teach rather than be taught, you will not only negatively affect yourself but also the one who is hearing you. Being a highly effective person consists of one being able to help others. When you are good at listening, you will be excellent at being understood. It is the same way as if you want to be a teacher in school. You will never be able to be understood if you never understood who taught you. This will keep you in a loop of not being understood because you not listening makes you ununderstandable. 

6. Synergize 

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

Reflection: The definition of synergizing is the habit of creative cooperation. This means to me that one is open-minded like when working on solving problems. An example of synergizing is people working together to take on a big and hard task. Each person can do parts of a certain topic and eventually bring it all together to add up their parts to make an overall big answer. Stephen Covey uses the example of "1+1=3" and this can clearly show us how 1+1 isn't 2 because both numbers work together to make more. When working with a team it is critical to making sure that every person understands the subject they are working on and stay on task. This is because the team will only be as good as their worst player. By helping one-another and being open-minded, the whole team will work as one and not have any "worst" teammate. This mentality of synergizing will give each person a role of a leader. This is because everyone will be working at their best to improve not only themselves but their teammates and make sure nobody gets held behind. 

7. Sharpen the Saw

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

Reflection: This means to me that its a metaphor for being effective on the four dimensions. By "sharpening" the saw, it's like you trying or practicing your best on the 4 dimensions. Also if you don't behave at your best to do so, it is the same as if you have a "dull" blade. Having a dull blade won't let you cut anything. This can be an example of you trying to accomplish something. An example can be like studying in the night for an exam. By doing so you are "sharpening" your saw to become effective and complete the task you are preparing for. This a way you can "sharpen" your saw to be proficient at your emotional and mental health. A way to sharpen your spiritual health can be like studying or learning more about your religion. All these examples can help you use them in the real world so you can become a highly effective person. 

7 Habits Final 

 Reflection: All these 7 habits are critical when they come to making you a highly effective person. If you decide to take part in these 7 habits, you must commit yourself to stay on track with all habits. If you start to slack off on one habit, it can cause you to lose track on all of the rest and not make you be at your best. One thing I have done to be committed is that I want to know before I can teach. And what I mean by this is that I want to get help on all problems I have and once I'm proficient, I will begin to help those so I can truly help them reach their full potential of understanding. All these 7 habits have also changed my entire perspective I used to have. I was afraid to apply to certain colleges because of the low acceptance rate, but I thought "win-win" and it helped me overcome my fear of not applying. This is really helpful because if I didn't take that chance I would have stayed with the thought of "what would have happened if..." I also worked with some friends when applying to colleges and this made it more effective for all of us because we synergized to become more knowledgeable and stronger when applying. These are some of the few things that the "7 Habits of Effective People" have helped me and it will continue to benefit me more if I keep being committed to applying myself to them.