Tribute To Stephen Covey

News from Salt Lake City, Utah reported that Stephen R. Covey, author of "The 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People" and three other books that sold millions of copies have died aged 79. He died from complications after a bicycle accident in April. He was knocked unconscious in the bike accident on a steep road. He suffered bleeding in his brain.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8LM4C1l70U

The 7 Habits was a #1 Best-seller. Never had I read something so empowering, remarkable, elegant, thoughtful and enlightening on family, relationships, values and communication. There is power and conviction, one of the most exceptional books I have ever read.
It is so good that everybody should have one so that you can read it over and over again and use if as a source of reference and more than that and most importantly to apply it for it will work wonders in your life because they were principle based.

For a quick reference, here they are and what I thought it's about:

Habit 1: Be Proactive (Principles of Personal Vision)

The first thing is to have personal responsibility, personal ownership since we have the freedom of choices and decisions. Herein lies the self awareness to make right choices, decisions and moves to be proactive in it all rather than be reactive.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jO7YOBwanzs&feature=related


Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind (Principles of Personal Leadership)

When you golf, they say you need to have a vision, how and where your ball will land for your next shot. The vision that leads you into the action. Like I used to say, what you think leads to what you will say and finally do. Everybody  knows how to begin something but few know how to end. How will the closure be like? What would happened in the end? What are you going to do and how are you going to accomplish it? What are the personal values and principles? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KIZK_3hbqM


Habit 3: Put First Things First (Principles of Personal Management)

Simple yet profound. What is the order of importance in your life? What is important may not be urgent and what is urgent may not be important. Deal with the important first. Your crisis and pressing problems.


Habit 4: Think Win Win (Principles of Interpersonal Leadership)

No one can achieve anything on their own. If you only have benefits to yourself, you can't win for it won't last. If everyone agrees and share the same vision and rewards then you are all committed. To do that you need integrity.

Habit 5: Seek First to Understand then to Be Understood (Principles of Emphatic Communication) 

God gave us two ears and one mouth so we should listen more and talk less. Listen, understand then communicate and provide solutions. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5aszu84FLM

Habit 6: Synergize (Principles of Creative Cooperation)

Have a heart of compassion so that you can have an open mind as an open mind accepts new ideas and help build cooperation and trust.

Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw (Principles of Balance Self-Renewal)


Sharpen yourself - mind, body and soul. Re-energize and rebuild. You will need exercise and nutrition, you have to read to open up your mind and get a balance.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jO7YOBwanzs&feature=related

Thank God for you! RIP Stephen Covey and thanks for the inspiration! It's an awesome read on the 7 Habits.

You owe it to yourself to get one, read and practise them. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Uncle Choo

Image
Preface It has really been awhile since I have last written and published an article on my blog with the last being in October last year. Before that I have been writing and publishing non-stop for 15 years since 2008.  I was not suffering from writer's block. They say running water never grows stale. So I have to move on to other things since the pandemic has ravaged and torn all asunder. No matter how passionate you are about anything, you will find that after an absence for sometime, the engine gets cold and you find it harder to start.  Just too darned busy and being too busy with one thing means one becomes lazy with the others. The law of compensation. A hiatus if you must.  Covid made it worse as there was no more travelling since borders were closed and eating locally and overseas were curtailed. So I could not write about these things. In fact, I laid out my travel luggage, sat down and spoke to them - "We are not gonna travel for a few years". They have since be
Read more

The Kallang Roar! (Part Three)

Image
Back in the good old days, we have four other national teams. Besides the National Team (The Lions), we also have a B team (The Cubs). Then we also competed in the Sultan's Gold Cup fielding a team called Singapore Malays. We have the Singapore Indians playing in the Bardhan Cup and the other being the Singapore Chinese team also competing aga inst Malaysian state teams in the same format and also the Ho Ho Cup triangular among Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong. In 1976, Englishman Trevor Hartley became responsible for the Singapore team at age 28. I can't remember which year Singapore beat Malacca 6-2 and Lee Bee Seng was sent off for punching an opponent who must have trampled on him. Here is Bee Seng with Brian Rozario. In the same match Quah Kim Song was sent off too for fighting. And I said wow! Malaysia Cup is like that? I like! (Pix - Lee Bee Seng with Brian Rozario). And can you believe this? Before all these we have Mike Walker who played Kim Song a
Read more

The Hainanese

The Hainanese are people from Hainan who originated from Hainan Island - the smallest province of China at the Southern most tip. They were originally fishermen from Fujian and Guandong and later settled over there. The Hainanese, part of the Chinese dispora migrated to different South East Asian countries including late comers to Singapore worked in ships as sailors, opened their own coffee shops or restaurants, bakeries or bars and worked as cooks and chefs and others at local hotels.  Hainanese in Singapore made up 7% of the Chinese population. The Hainanese came to Singapore much later than the Hokkiens and Teochews who are already well entrenched in trade and commerce. Originally they also have problems communicating with other dialect groups as their language seems unintelligible to the others but they began to carve out a name for themselves working for wealthy Europeans including as canteen operators for military bases.  Hainanese are especially with food and beverage.
Read more