Principles are guidelines for human conduct that are proven to have enduring, permanent value. Stephen Covey More Quotes by Stephen Covey More Quotes From Stephen Covey Most of us think we don't have enough time to exercise. What a distorted paradigm! We don't have time not to. We're talking about three to six hours a week - or a minimum of thirty minutes a day, every other day. That hardly seems an inordinate amount of time considering the tremendous benefits in terms of the impact on the other 162 - 165 hours of the week. Stephen Covey healthworkoutexercise Anyone can count the seeds of an apple. Who can count the apples in a seed? Stephen Covey seedsapples At the core, there is one simple, overarching reason why so many people remain unsatisfied in their work and why most organisations fail to draw out the greatest talent, ingenuity, and creativity of their people and never become truly great, enduring organisations. It stems from an incomplete paradigm of who we are - our fundamental view of human nature. The fundamental reality is, human beings are not things needing to be motivated and controlled; they are four-dimensional - body, mind, heart, and spirit. Stephen Covey creativitysimpleheart The 'Inside-Out' approach to personal and interpersonal effectiveness means to start first with self; even more fundamentally, to start with the most inside part of self, with your paradigms, your character, and your motives. The inside-out approach says that private victories precede public victories, that making and keeping promises to ourselves recedes making and keeping promises to others. It says it is futile to put personality ahead of character, to try to improve relationships with others before improving ourselves. Stephen Covey selfcharactermean Most people struggle with life balance simply because they haven't paid the price to decide what is really important to them. Stephen Covey goalstrugglepeople We often get so busy "sawing" (producing results) that we forget to "sharpen our saw" (maintain or increase our capacity to produce results in the future). Stephen Covey sawsbusyforget When you have too many top priorities, you effectively have no top priorities. Stephen Covey top-prioritiesprioritiesmotivational You can buy a person's hands but you can't buy his heart. His heart is where his enthusiasm, his loyalty is. Stephen Covey loyaltybusinessheart Trust is a function of two things: character and competence. Character includes your integrity, your motive and your intent with people. Competence includes your capabilities, your skills, and your track record. Both are vital. Stephen Covey skillsintegritycharacter Many people seem to think that success in one area can compensate for failure in other areas. But can it really?... True effectiveness requires balance. Stephen Covey failuremistakethinking We hear a lot about identity theft when someone takes your wallet and pretends to be you and uses your credit cards. But the more serious identity theft is to get swallowed up in other people's definition of you. Stephen Covey identitycardspeople If the only vision we have of ourselves comes from the social mirror - from the current social paradigm and from the opinions, perceptions, and paradigms of the people around us - our view of ourselves is like the reflection in a crazy mirror room at the carnival. Stephen Covey crazymirrorsreflection Develop all four intelligences. PQ (physical intelligence) which represents 70 trillion cells that fight disease and digest your breakfast. IQ (intellectual intelligence) EQ (emotional intelligence) the sensing and wisdom of the heart - - and SQ (spiritual intelligence) having to do with meaning, purpose and integrity around your selected value system and your believed source. When combined, they change the world for good. Stephen Covey spiritualheartintegrity All things are created twice. There's a mental or first creation, and a physical or second creation of all things. You have to make sure that the blueprint, the first creation, is really what you want, that you've thought everything through. Then you put it into bricks and mortar. Each day you go to the construction shed and pull out the blueprint to get marching orders for the day. You begin with the end in mind. Stephen Covey bricks-and-mortarmindorder You can't be successful with other people if you haven't paid the price of success with yourself. Stephen Covey successfulleadershippeople One of the most important ways to manifest integrity is to be loyal to those who are not present. In doing so, we build the trust of those who are present. Stephen Covey loyalimportantintegrity There is so much we can do to render service, to make a difference in the world - no matter how large or small our circle of influence. Stephen Covey circlesdifferencescompassion In the absence of wake-up calls, many of us never really confront the critical issues of life. Stephen Covey issueswake-uplife The environment you fashion out of your thoughts, your beliefs, your ideals, your philosophy is the only climate you will ever live in. The key is in not spending time, but in investing it. Stephen Covey fashiontimephilosophy It's not enough to have values without vision ; you want to be good, but you want to be good for something. On the other hand, vision without values can create a Hitler . An empowering mission statement deals with both character and competence; what you want to be and what you want to do in your life. Stephen Covey empoweringcharacterhands
