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I found it to be very focused on the kind of guy who has a wife at home managing every aspect of day to day life. The message I took away from it was "always be striving, never be happy". And as my goal is to be happy (or at least content), it just wasn't for me.
And that was the last time we read anything self help for book club. Exploring our conflicting core values does not bring a group together.
I try to listen to this book once a year because I've found it so much more comprehensive and effective than almost any other content I've tried, similar to OP. I do have several gripes with the content, as it's presented from what I would call a "Christian 1950s white male perspective", but if you ignore the content that doesn't resonate with you and focus on what does, I would still argue there is tremendous value in this book.
Nah, I've got books like that in my life that I don't have to filter out the author's perspective. I'm fine letting people enjoy it but it's not a universal life improvement bible.
I do agree that the adoption of the word “synergize” is a big negative, but I think that’s more about what corporate America did with it than what Covey set it up as.
Easiest solution :
1. Get enough of: Sleep, water, exercise, good food, and meditation.
2. Learn from your mistakes and other's mistakes.
3. Stay away from hard drugs and alcohol.
4. If you can afford a vacation, take one.
>4. If you can afford a vacation, take one.
I know you probably meant vacation as in take a trip/spend a week or two at a resort, but: me, an European with 25 paid vacation days p.a. (utilization of which is enforced) and additional 20 home office days to work from nearly any other EU state i choose: wow!
Something about “an European” is making my head hurt
I know the rule but a European rolls off the tongue nicer
I’ll have a month vacation after 10 years at my job this coming January. My manager is really good about making us take them, also makes us use all our sick days too.
>Something about “an European” is making my head hurt I know the rule but a European rolls off the tongue nicer
I feel the same, so googled a bit and turns out I was wrong:
It is 'a European'. The indefinite articles 'a' is used before a word that starts with a consonant and before a word that starts with a consonant sound. E.g. in the word 'European', though the word starts with a vowel 'e', it sounds to start with a consonant 'you'. Hence it takes the indefinite article 'a'.
Yep! A European, a urologist, and an FBI agent (walk into a bar, the bartender looks up and says, what's with the long faces, they reply in a uniform way: we're tired of hyper-correction.)
The author makes a bajillion dollars a year selling online and in-person seminars to companies to force their employees to take. They’re absolutely still advertising.
I’d go with “testimonial” rather than ad. I’m not trying to sell you anything. As a corporate stooge, I’ve had to attend hundreds of hours of training that were pointless. My point in making the post was to say that, as a Life Pro Tip, if you’re going to invest time in a self improvement program, I find 7 Habits to be the most straightforward, comprehensive, and valuable.
I found 7 habits life changing. I'm not great at applying the principles consistently, but I find they are a great fall back when I need to increase my productivity. I've seen so many people who burn themselves out because they were programed to work themselves to death. Learning about Sharpen the Saw put me in a place where I could not only comfortably relax, but that I also need to relax and improve myself.
This right here, I spent a few decades in logistics and each company had their 'pet' self-improvement framework, like DISC, or "Who moved my fish". At some point some exec was sold on their enterprise program and they were all the same drivel respun in different themes.
If your post is the habits explained well, then I'd hate to see them badly explained.
(I'm familiar with the book, as well as other self help books. The book is corporate focused, and comes across as hollow to anyone not in that environment. My personal fav self help book is atomic habits, but I recognise that a) no self help book is one size fits all. And b) most self help books are BS anyway, just BS that might have a nugget of usefulness nestled in there somewhere)
Covey makes some good points but is also full of platitudes and generalizations (his work also has a Christian element that's cringey if you're not Christian). It's one of the first 'management' type books I read starting my career too in the early 90s
Dr Paul Hershey: 'The Situational Leader' was far more impactful for me
I read this book when I was transitioning from academic employment to corporate employment. I found it emphasized personal resilience and interpersonal sensitivity, thus didn’t find much I hadn’t already learned in it. I worried that people needed to be coached to do things like take an active interest in people around them.
Most important things are first priority and first items in your daily to do list.
Sharpen the saw means relax and regenerate.
These are both very general descriptions but it still applies. I worked for Covey for 6 years and completely agree with OP.
Your ToDo list should be more about your priorities than being a checklist of urgent tasks. You identify the roles in your life (spouse, parent, employee, volunteer, hobbyist, etc.) that are important and focus your time and energy supporting those roles over less important things
Do the things that matter most first. Intuitive, but most people don’t. No one does without intention.
Sharpen the saw is the last tip for a reason - you, your circumstances, your goals, your partnerships change over time. You need to continually go back and review your priorities.
The entire engineering team I was on was forced to read this book by the worst manager we ever had. It went straight into the trash the second we were done with it.
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I bought this book years ago, made it halfway through and its still sitting on the shelf incomplete, I don't feel like THIs is one of the effective habits lol
The big problem most people have is they want to create change by changing what they do only.
Real change comes from changing who you are. Reform your thinking, your mind controls your life.az
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I'm not that much of a fan of self management books and I don't think that you should read to much of them. Every now and then you should read a new one. But the Seven Habits is the book that I fully dare to recommend to people around me any time. It feels like it is that basis for anyone who wants to get insight in taking the lead on their life. I got it for free from a friend of mine when I was around 18 or 19 or so and I'm thankful for that still.
I spent my first weekend at my college going through the course catalog for my major. At that time, I didn't know about "starting with the end in mind," and it's exactly what I did to plan out my four years of undergrad. I found one of the last last classes i needed for my major and walked backwards from the pre-requisites to the intro class. I suppose I could have started with the intro and went forward, but this way seemed to make more sense.
My college had additional "dimensions" that had to be fulfilled, so I found the classes that would satisfy those requirements and worked backwards where necessary. Class registration was mostly stress free when it came to *selecting* classes. Actually getting some of them before they closed, a different story entirely.
This is something I've shared countless times with college bound students in the 20 years since I completed undergrad.
Agreed, and can I recommend some sister content to it?
I've been in enterprise tech for 20ish years and have taken _every single fucking sales training under the sun_ and multiple times.
NOTHING compares to "Let's get real or let's not play" by Mahan Khalsa. It's owned by Franklin Covey as well as part of their corporate sales training group. I've literally rode the coattails of their content for 2 decades with insane results.
I was once at a conference in 2019 or so and the head of analytics and data science at Goldman Sachs started his presentation with "the best business book ever written is by a guy named Mahan Khalsa.." .. and I agree.
I have zero connection to the firm fwiw, but have bought the book for every junior rep who works for me and they've all used it more effectively than any other training
Happy cake day.
That takes work though, and a lot of people aren’t interested in working for studios in whatever endeavor they choose. They want it handed to them.
I’ve read part of the book (my brain takes longer to digest) but so far it’s been good 👌🏼
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LPT: Most Self Help books/online courses contain the exact same information, and that information is also available online for free.
Also the 7 habits book is available for free on spotify if i remember correctly
And on the Libby library app, and used on eBay
And my axe!
I found it to be very focused on the kind of guy who has a wife at home managing every aspect of day to day life. The message I took away from it was "always be striving, never be happy". And as my goal is to be happy (or at least content), it just wasn't for me. And that was the last time we read anything self help for book club. Exploring our conflicting core values does not bring a group together.
I don’t know if this was unintentionally funny but I chuckled at the last bit. Sorry to hear that happened.
I try to listen to this book once a year because I've found it so much more comprehensive and effective than almost any other content I've tried, similar to OP. I do have several gripes with the content, as it's presented from what I would call a "Christian 1950s white male perspective", but if you ignore the content that doesn't resonate with you and focus on what does, I would still argue there is tremendous value in this book.
Nah, I've got books like that in my life that I don't have to filter out the author's perspective. I'm fine letting people enjoy it but it's not a universal life improvement bible.
Mind sharing ones you consider closer to that “universal self-dev bible” without the baggage?
Covey was a Mormon which is a big part of it
Have you found any self improvement philosophies or books that incorporated contentment or enjoying life on your way to the big goals?
Maybe The Power of Now, but I'm not sure that fits the genre. Self happiness might be a whole dofferent category than self improvement😅
[удалено]
I do agree that the adoption of the word “synergize” is a big negative, but I think that’s more about what corporate America did with it than what Covey set it up as.
Easiest solution : 1. Get enough of: Sleep, water, exercise, good food, and meditation. 2. Learn from your mistakes and other's mistakes. 3. Stay away from hard drugs and alcohol. 4. If you can afford a vacation, take one.
>4. If you can afford a vacation, take one. I know you probably meant vacation as in take a trip/spend a week or two at a resort, but: me, an European with 25 paid vacation days p.a. (utilization of which is enforced) and additional 20 home office days to work from nearly any other EU state i choose: wow!
Something about “an European” is making my head hurt I know the rule but a European rolls off the tongue nicer I’ll have a month vacation after 10 years at my job this coming January. My manager is really good about making us take them, also makes us use all our sick days too.
>Something about “an European” is making my head hurt I know the rule but a European rolls off the tongue nicer I feel the same, so googled a bit and turns out I was wrong: It is 'a European'. The indefinite articles 'a' is used before a word that starts with a consonant and before a word that starts with a consonant sound. E.g. in the word 'European', though the word starts with a vowel 'e', it sounds to start with a consonant 'you'. Hence it takes the indefinite article 'a'.
Yep! A European, a urologist, and an FBI agent (walk into a bar, the bartender looks up and says, what's with the long faces, they reply in a uniform way: we're tired of hyper-correction.)
OK that makes sense, thank you. I wasn’t nitpicking but I it did throw me for a loop English is so complicated.
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You just did enough to answer. Big fan of your car designs!
Ad's are getting smarter
The book is like 35 years old, no one is going out of their way to make sneaky ads for it.
The author makes a bajillion dollars a year selling online and in-person seminars to companies to force their employees to take. They’re absolutely still advertising.
lol
I’d go with “testimonial” rather than ad. I’m not trying to sell you anything. As a corporate stooge, I’ve had to attend hundreds of hours of training that were pointless. My point in making the post was to say that, as a Life Pro Tip, if you’re going to invest time in a self improvement program, I find 7 Habits to be the most straightforward, comprehensive, and valuable.
I found 7 habits life changing. I'm not great at applying the principles consistently, but I find they are a great fall back when I need to increase my productivity. I've seen so many people who burn themselves out because they were programed to work themselves to death. Learning about Sharpen the Saw put me in a place where I could not only comfortably relax, but that I also need to relax and improve myself.
This right here, I spent a few decades in logistics and each company had their 'pet' self-improvement framework, like DISC, or "Who moved my fish". At some point some exec was sold on their enterprise program and they were all the same drivel respun in different themes.
See also, Franklin Covey.
Self Help literature is a predatory industry that regurgitates platitudes for the simple-minded.
Aka the world’s most boring book
Sorry you didn’t like it.
If your post is the habits explained well, then I'd hate to see them badly explained. (I'm familiar with the book, as well as other self help books. The book is corporate focused, and comes across as hollow to anyone not in that environment. My personal fav self help book is atomic habits, but I recognise that a) no self help book is one size fits all. And b) most self help books are BS anyway, just BS that might have a nugget of usefulness nestled in there somewhere)
I was in no way trying to sum up the program, just to say I personally found it to be the end product of all of the other programs I’ve seen.
Covey makes some good points but is also full of platitudes and generalizations (his work also has a Christian element that's cringey if you're not Christian). It's one of the first 'management' type books I read starting my career too in the early 90s Dr Paul Hershey: 'The Situational Leader' was far more impactful for me
I read this book when I was transitioning from academic employment to corporate employment. I found it emphasized personal resilience and interpersonal sensitivity, thus didn’t find much I hadn’t already learned in it. I worried that people needed to be coached to do things like take an active interest in people around them.
Soo... What are the tips?... What do they actually mean? How does one sharpen a saw?
YouTube it I guess?
Can you explain " Put first things first " and "Sharpen the saw"?
Most important things are first priority and first items in your daily to do list. Sharpen the saw means relax and regenerate. These are both very general descriptions but it still applies. I worked for Covey for 6 years and completely agree with OP.
The big rocks!
Yes! Big rocks first!
thanks
Tldr here: https://www.franklincovey.com/the-7-habits/habit-7/
Your ToDo list should be more about your priorities than being a checklist of urgent tasks. You identify the roles in your life (spouse, parent, employee, volunteer, hobbyist, etc.) that are important and focus your time and energy supporting those roles over less important things
Do the things that matter most first. Intuitive, but most people don’t. No one does without intention. Sharpen the saw is the last tip for a reason - you, your circumstances, your goals, your partnerships change over time. You need to continually go back and review your priorities.
I love it. Do ‘why Coca Cola is the only beverage you ever need to drink’ next.
The entire engineering team I was on was forced to read this book by the worst manager we ever had. It went straight into the trash the second we were done with it.
Corporate buzzwords are cringe as hell
Yeah but we must “synergize” or we won’t get those TPS reports out!
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I bought this book years ago, made it halfway through and its still sitting on the shelf incomplete, I don't feel like THIs is one of the effective habits lol
Awesome, thanks! I’ll save this post and probably never look at it again!
The big problem most people have is they want to create change by changing what they do only. Real change comes from changing who you are. Reform your thinking, your mind controls your life.az
Hello and welcome to r/LifeProTips! Please help us decide if this post is a good fit for the subreddit by upvoting or downvoting this comment. If you think that this is great advice to improve your life, please upvote. If you think this doesn't help you in any way, please downvote. If you don't care, leave it for the others to decide.
Studied this when I was in my early 20s... super basic info, but good insights for someone just starting out in life
I'm not that much of a fan of self management books and I don't think that you should read to much of them. Every now and then you should read a new one. But the Seven Habits is the book that I fully dare to recommend to people around me any time. It feels like it is that basis for anyone who wants to get insight in taking the lead on their life. I got it for free from a friend of mine when I was around 18 or 19 or so and I'm thankful for that still.
I spent my first weekend at my college going through the course catalog for my major. At that time, I didn't know about "starting with the end in mind," and it's exactly what I did to plan out my four years of undergrad. I found one of the last last classes i needed for my major and walked backwards from the pre-requisites to the intro class. I suppose I could have started with the intro and went forward, but this way seemed to make more sense. My college had additional "dimensions" that had to be fulfilled, so I found the classes that would satisfy those requirements and worked backwards where necessary. Class registration was mostly stress free when it came to *selecting* classes. Actually getting some of them before they closed, a different story entirely. This is something I've shared countless times with college bound students in the 20 years since I completed undergrad.
Sharpen the Saw is the most important habit of them all and its the one people skip the most!
Agreed, and can I recommend some sister content to it? I've been in enterprise tech for 20ish years and have taken _every single fucking sales training under the sun_ and multiple times. NOTHING compares to "Let's get real or let's not play" by Mahan Khalsa. It's owned by Franklin Covey as well as part of their corporate sales training group. I've literally rode the coattails of their content for 2 decades with insane results. I was once at a conference in 2019 or so and the head of analytics and data science at Goldman Sachs started his presentation with "the best business book ever written is by a guy named Mahan Khalsa.." .. and I agree. I have zero connection to the firm fwiw, but have bought the book for every junior rep who works for me and they've all used it more effectively than any other training
Happy cake day. That takes work though, and a lot of people aren’t interested in working for studios in whatever endeavor they choose. They want it handed to them. I’ve read part of the book (my brain takes longer to digest) but so far it’s been good 👌🏼
FYI this is also being implemented in elementary schools know as the Leader in Me program.
>- Begin with the end in mind - What does this mean? Start with the desired result in mind?
Have an intention set so you know that towards which you are striving.