Covey, Stephen R., The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People: Restoring the Character Ethic, New York: Fireside Book / Simon & Schuster ( ), 1990 (1989). Summary from Wikipedia Retrieved April 11, 2011

1. Be Proactive Taking initiative in life by realizing your decisions (and how they align with life’s principles) are the primary determining factor for effectiveness in your life. Taking responsibility for your choices and the subsequent consequences that follow. Getting things done.

2. Begin with the End in Mind Self-discover and clarify your deeply important character values and life goals. Envision the ideal characteristics for each of your various roles and relationships in life. It is always better to try and foresee situations. Predict outcomes and then think of worst case scenarios, will help come up with informed decisions.

3. Put First Things First Planning, prioritizing, and executing your week’s tasks based on importance rather than urgency. Evaluating if your efforts exemplify your desired character values, propel you towards goals, and enrich the roles and relationships elaborated in Habit 2. Prioritization is the key to the success of any business or in any walk of life. Being proactive rather than being reactive leads to success.

4. Think Win-Win Genuinely striving for mutually beneficial solutions or agreements in your relationships. Valuing and respecting people by understanding a “win” for all is ultimately a better long-term resolution than if only one person in the situation had gotten his way. Everyone will feel inclusive and involved. A better environment of trust and loyalty establishes.

5. Seek First to Understand, then to be understood Using empathetic listening to be genuinely influenced by a person, which compels them to reciprocate the listening and take an open mind to being influenced by you. This creates an atmosphere of caring, respect, and positive problem solving. This can also avoid situations where the problem does not actually exist and it’s just a matter of misunderstanding. It is always said that listen double to what you talk since we have 2 ears to listen and one mouth to talk.

6. Synergize Combining the strengths of people through positive teamwork, so as to achieve goals no one person could have done alone. How to yield the most prolific performance out of a group of people through encouraging meaningful contribution, and modeling inspirational and supportive leadership. Everyone is a master of something and not everything. Positive potentials can be put together to achieve better results.

7. Sharpen the Saw The balancing and renewal of your resources, energy, and health to create a sustainable long- term effective lifestyle. This is constant improvement of one's self in order to be a better human being and to sharpen one's skills in order to achieve better results.