Week 7: Feb. 16 -22

Week 7: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

When it comes to the 7 Habits, from “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” by Stephen Covey, I like to start at the beginning. Be proactive. Being a self-starter has never been an issue for me as it is built into my personality. I sometimes must remind myself that help is a good thing and doing things myself is not necessary. The next step is “Begin with the end in mind.” When I was little, I loved mazes, but I found that starting at the end was far easier than starting at the beginning. The maze had not changed, but my perspective had and sometimes that is all the difference. When I look at goals and things that I want to accomplish in life, I need to change my perspective and start at the end and work way back to the present. I can handle that if I keep a gospel perspective and “Think Eternal.”

 

The next step is where I get stuck. Put first things first. I worked in the food industry for many years and got very good at rotating food, First in and First out. It helps to look at life like produce, what things need to be done first and what can wait? I am a visual person and really enjoyed the four-quadrant graph of how to manage and group things. My biggest problem is that I think all things are important and urgent, but I need to be more honest and find out what can wait. Will this really make a difference if I do it tomorrow, or ever?

 

I feel like I can’t move past step three, even though I know these steps can be done in any order. I like my checklists and this one has not been checked off yet. I can’t find my private victory and feel like any public victory would be a lie. Perhaps there should be a step, maybe step 0.5, about giving yourself grace. I think I missed that one. I'm still a work in progress.