If I were to summarize in one sentence the single most important principle I have learned in the field of interpersonal relations, it would be this: Seek first to understand, then to be understood. This principle is the key to effective interpersonal communication.

Stephen Covey

I am not a product of my circumstances. I am a product of my decisions.

Stephen Covey

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To achieve goals you've never achieved before, you need to start doing things you've never done before.

Stephen Covey

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Unless you’re continually improving your skills, you’re quickly becoming irrelevant.

Stephen Covey

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The key is not to prioritize what's on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.

Stephen Covey

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While we cannot always choose what happens to us, we can choose our responses.

Stephen Covey

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The reality is that everybody makes mistakes. The issue isn't whether you will make them, it's what you will do about them. It's whether you will choose the path of humility and courage or the path of ego and pride.

Stephen Covey

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Live your life by a compass, not a clock.

Stephen Covey

live-your-life compass clock

Make small commitments and keep them. Be a light, not a judge. Be a model, not a critic. Be a part of the solution, not the problem.

Stephen Covey

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Don't cheat people of their growth. Empower them to solve problems and generate ideas. Watch them grow!

Stephen Covey

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Little kindness and courtesies are so important. In relationships, the little things are the big things.

Stephen Covey

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See every problem as an opportunity to exercise creative energy.

Stephen Covey

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If you can hire people whose passion intersects with the job, they won't require any supervision at all. They will manage themselves better than anyone could ever manage them. Their fire comes from within, not from without. Their motivation is internal, not external.

Stephen Covey

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What you do has far greater impact than what you say.

Stephen Covey

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Look at the word responsibility-"response-ability"-the ability to choose your response. Highly proactive people recognize that responsibility. They do not blame circumstances, conditions, or conditioning for their behavior. Their behavior is a product of their own conscious choice, based on values, rather than a product of their conditions, based on feeling.

Stephen Covey

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Listen to your conscience regarding something that you simply know you should do, then start small on it - make a promise and keep it. Then move forward and make a little larger promise and keep it. Eventually you'll discover that your sense of honor will become greater than your moods, and that will give you a level of confidence and excitement that you can move to other areas where you feel you need to make improvements or give service.

Stephen Covey

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Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply.

Stephen Covey

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Prepare your mind and heart before you prepare your speech . What we say may be less important than how we say it.

Stephen Covey

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You can't change the fruit without changing the root.

Stephen Covey

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It doesn't really matter how fast you're going if you're heading in the wrong direction.

Stephen Covey

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Live out of your imagination, not your history.

Stephen Covey

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