This is my take on The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, a pretty boring read. Before commenting on these habits though, let me say that the book’s certainly full of all of the unnecessarily complex ways and words to describe simple concepts that one would expect from those pretentious “grandiloquents” and pompous “sesquipedalians” that like to project deep thinking to their marks. See? I can do it too!
As I look over the results from my on-line search of the author and the first few words of the title, I see that he’s making millions along with the rest of his ilk, like Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen of the Chicken Soup for the Soul books. Turns out they’ve each grifted themselves about $50 million.
My view on this book and others like it is that nothing in ‘em is new, let alone radical, and that if one is going to waste their time on them, they would be better off using them to learn the polysyllabic words used throughout ‘em to enhance their vocabularies. As far as their value beyond this, they have none. We simply need to apply critical thinking and common sense to life’s challenges and attempts to get ahead.
It begins with habit one; “being proactive”, which the author says means to take responsibility for one’s life, which is quite a different thing, in my view. He implies, as many people do, that you can’t lay blame for bad things on your parents, or life, or circumstances, or this or that. I believe that in many instances you can, because so much of what happens to us is a direct result of things others, life, or whatever, do to us. I’m also not talking about how we should react to it all, either, as that’s another thing altogether.
Covey also states that proactivity sets us apart from the animal kingdom. I guess he’s never heard of how a leopard will lie in wait on the limb of a tree for its oblivious and unaware prey to walk beneath it.
I suppose that despite what happens to us, being proactive can mean being “response-able.” Successful individuals rarely dwell upon conditions or conditioning for their challenging circumstances, which is what reactive people do; always looking for external sources to blame. If the weather’s good, they feel good and act so. If not, it affects their attitude and performance, and they blame it accordingly.
If you find yourself doing so, stop. External forces act as stimuli that we all respond to. Before doing so though, choose that response. An important thing to start with, is deciding what to say. Your language is a good indicator of how you see yourself and how others will see you. Proactive’s say “I can and will”, reactive’s say “I can’t” and find reasons why, maintaining they’re not responsible; when they really are.
Proactives focus their time and energy on things they control rather than what they cannot. They proactively address things they can do something about, like their health, their children (maybe), etc. Reactives dwell in and obsess over that which they have little or no control. They focus on everything from the weather to fair-weather family, friends and/or “frenemies” or other drama, real or imagined.
Make More Monie counsels every First Worlder to take responsibility for their life as one’s life doesn’t just “happen”. It’s played out in response to one’s decisions and actions. Having said that, some people believe that everyone’s life is designed; that, as the choices made are theirs alone, they directly result in their happiness/sadness, or their success/failure. Others say all is preordained, which is just as ridiculous. Some people can make positive, proactive choices and still be the victim of negative fallout. None of this means that we designed our lives to have those things happen, nor is it all preordained for us on some universal, supernatural scale.
All situations provide for choices to be made. No matter how late one realizes this, options are always there to do something based on sound principles in producing more positive results than negative ones. Of course, once the decision has been made, one actually has to follow through on it as rewards never precede risks. So be both responsible and “response-able”
Disclaimer: The information contained herein should not be construed or considered professional advice. Nonetheless, thanks for reading! If it resonates, there’s “plenty more where that came from” on Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X ‘n’ YouTube.