Best Book Summaries | Self-Help, Business & Nonfiction Books in Minutes – StoryShots

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StoryShots Summary of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change by Stephen Covey

About Stephen Covey

Stephen Covey was an internationally respected leadership authority. Time magazine recognized him as one of the 25 Most Influential Americans. He was also a family expert, professor, organizational consultant, and author. Each of these achievements were built upon his strong academic foundation. Covey became an eager participant in school debates and graduated early from high school. He then attended the University of Utah and got a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration followed by an MBA from Harvard University. He diverted his attention from business studies to doctoral studies in religion. Covey’s most popular book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, has sold more than 30 million copies worldwide since its publication in 1989.

Part I - Paradigms and Principles

Introduction

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People challenges traditional self-help that encourages personality ethics, like image and attitude. Covey suggests that readers use a character ethic instead. A character ethic relies on timeless principles, like courage and integrity. To make this transition, you will have to go through what Covey calls a paradigm shift. An effective person has learned to make the paradigm shift from outside in to inside out. They have progressed along the growth continuum from dependence to independence and finally to interdependence. An effective person has also found the balance of production while increasing their capability to produce. To become an effective person, you have to encourage a paradigm shift in your worldview by adopting the seven habits of highly effective people.

The first three habits are habits of self-mastery, or private victories. These are:

Be Proactive

Begin With the End in Mind

Put First Things First

These three must come first. After adopting these habits, you can use the three habits of public victories. These three habits are built on interdependence. These are:

Think Win-Win

Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood

Synergize

The last habit relies on continuous improvement and is key to the proper functioning and renewal of the first six. This habit is:

Sharpen the Saw

Part II - Private Victory

Habit 1: Be Proactive

“Until a person can say deeply and honestly, ‘I am what I am today because of the choices I made yesterday,’ that person cannot say, ‘I choose otherwise.’� - Stephen Covey

Covey encourages you to reconsider your dictionary definition of proactive. You must also forget how you have learned to think about this word not only in your personal life but also in your work.

First, we cannot understand proactivity without understanding human behavior. The widely accepted paradigms of human behavior are:

1) Genetic determinism (you are who you are due to your genes)

2) Psychic determinism (your childhood and upbringing shaped your personality)

3) Environmental determinism...

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About David J Schwartzhttps://geni.us/david-schwartz (David J. Schwartz) (1927-1987) was a professor of marketing and chairman of the department at Georgia State University, Atlanta. He was considered a leading American authority on motivation. Starting from a one-room house in rural Indiana, David J. Schwartz became the president of his own company, Creative Educational Services, a consulting firm specializing in leadership development. On top of this, he became a lecturer to more than three thousand trade associations and sales groups.

Introduction

https://geni.us/magic-free-audiobook (The Magic of Thinking Big) is a powerful, practical, and uplifting book to help get you out of a rut. Building from this, this book can invigorate your goals and empower you towards success. Most people go through life with small ambitions, small goals, and small thoughts, and they only rise to the size of their dreams. That said, by thinking big, you can start achieving larger goals.

Chapter 1: Believe you can succeed, and you will

“Believe it can be done. When you believe something can be done, really believe, your mind will find the ways to do it. Believing a solution paves the way to a solution.� - David Schwartz

The size of your success is limited by the size of your thinking. If you do not believe you can achieve, this will further decrease your chances of success. Small thinking is characterized by searching for reasons for failure rather than ways you can succeed. You want to reconstruct your mind to have an expanded capacity so you can think bigger. It is within this expanded capacity that you can figure out the best actions to take.

Schwartz provides a question that readers should ask themselves to determine the level of belief they have.

“Do you believe you will have positive relationships, partners, and friendships?�

If you do not believe you will have positive relationships, partners, and friendships, then you are wrong. You are letting your belief system limit your potential success. To start challenging these beliefs and acquire the power of belief, you should follow these three tips:

Think Success, Don’t Think Failure

When you face a difficult situation, replace your automatic negative thinking with positive thoughts. Let success dominate your thought processes. Adopting these thoughts will allow you to create plans that produce success. Conversely, maintaining negative thoughts will encourage plans that produce failure.

Remind Yourself Regularly that You Are Better than You Think You Are

Successful people are not superhuman. On top of that, success isn’t based on luck. Successful people are just ordinary people who have developed a belief in themselves and what they do. So, never sell yourself short.

Believe Big

The size of your success is determined by the size of your belief. If you want to think of great ideas or ways of doing things, you first have to believe it’s possible. If you don’t believe that you can be successful, it is unlikely you will think of all the ways to achieve success.

Think little goals and...

"Essential reading for anyone who wants to understand history – and then go out and change it." – President Barack Obama

Nelson Mandela was one of the great moral and political leaders of his time: an international hero whose lifelong dedication to the fight against racial oppression in South Africa won him the Nobel Peace Prize and the presidency of his country. After his triumphant release in 1990 from more than a quarter-century of imprisonment, Mandela was at the center of the most compelling and inspiring political drama in the world. As president of the African National Congress and head of South Africa's antiapartheid movement, he was instrumental in moving the nation toward multiracial government and majority rule. He is still revered everywhere as a vital force in the fight for human rights and racial equality.

Long Walk to Freedom is his moving and exhilarating autobiography, destined to take its place among the finest memoirs of history's greatest figures. Here for the first time, Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela told the extraordinary story of his life -- an epic of struggle, setback, renewed hope, and ultimate triumph.