The world has entered an era of the most profound and challenging change in human history.
Stephen CoveyLook 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 CoveyThe best way to develop courage is to set a goal and achieve it, make a promise and keep it.
Stephen CoveyWe may find it convenient to live with the illusion that circumstances or other people are responsible for the quality of our lives, but the reality is that we are responsible-response-able-for our choices.
Stephen CoveyFundamentally, we are a product of choice, not nature (genes) or nurture (upbringing, environment).
Stephen CoveyThe most important ingredient we put into any relationship is not what we say or what we do, but what we are. And if our words and our actions come from superficial human relations techniques (the Personality Ethic) rather than from our own inner core (the Character Ethic), others will sense that duplicity. We simply won't be able to create and sustain the foundation necessary for effective interdependence.
Stephen Covey