To do list

Sunday, July 25, 2010

Name Meaning: Stephen Covey - Habit 1: Proactivity

My name meaning......hrm... apparently it means:

Spring...


Spirit or soul....


Gentle Spirit...


Beautiful......






"Champions aren't made in the Gym. Champions are made from that they have deep inside them - a desire, a dream, a vision. They have to have the skill and the will. But the will must be stronger than the skill" - Muhammad Ali.

"A wounded deer leaps the highest" - Emily Dickinson

The 7 HABITS of Highly EFFECTIVE people by Stephen R Covey
*what I'm reading now*




"It's not what happens to us, but our response to what happens to us that hurts us......

...Nothing has a greater, longer lasting impression upon another person than the
awareness that someone has transcended suffering, has transcended circumstance, and is embodying
and expressing a value that inspires and ennobles and lifts life." Stephen Covey

Do you choose to Act? Or be Acted Upon?

"What is our response? What are we going to do? How can we exercise initiative in this situation?"

P/PC approach: Goose/Golden Egss: Production/ Production Capacity

Proactive people make love a verb.

Circle of Concern & Circle of Influence. Live from the inside out, not outside in.


THE 7 HABITS OF HIGHLY EFFECTIVE PEOPLE
HABIT 1 : BE PROACTIVE
Your life doesn't just "happen." Whether you know it or not, it is carefully designed by you. The choices, after all, are yours. You choose happiness. You choose sadness. You choose decisiveness. You choose ambivalence. You choose success. You choose failure. You choose courage. You choose fear. Just remember that every moment, every situation, provides a new choice. And in doing so, it gives you a perfect opportunity to do things differently to produce more positive results.

Habit 1: Be Proactive is about taking responsibility for your life. You can't keep blaming everything on your parents or grandparents. Proactive people recognize that they are "response-able." They don't blame genetics, circumstances, conditions, or conditioning for their behavior. They know they choose their behavior. Reactive people, on the other hand, are often affected by their physical environment. They find external sources to blame for their behavior. If the weather is good, they feel good. If it isn't, it affects their attitude and performance, and they blame the weather. All of these external forces act as stimuli that we respond to. Between the stimulus and the response is your greatest power--you have the freedom to choose your response. One of the most important things you choose is what you say. Your language is a good indicator of how you see yourself. A proactive person uses proactive language--I can, I will, I prefer, etc. A reactive person uses reactive language--I can't, I have to, if only. Reactive people believe they are not responsible for what they say and do--they have no choice.

Instead of reacting to or worrying about conditions over which they have little or no control, proactive people focus their time and energy on things they can control. The problems, challenges, and opportunities we face fall into two areas--Circle of Concern and Circle of Influence.

Proactive people focus their efforts on their Circle of Influence. They work on the things they can do something about: health, children, problems at work. Reactive people focus their efforts in the Circle of Concern--things over which they have little or no control: the national debt, terrorism, the weather. Gaining an awareness of the areas in which we expend our energies in is a giant step in becoming proactive.