What we are communicates far more eloquently than anything we say or do. There are people we trust because we know their character. Whether they're eloquent or not, whether they have human-relations techniques or not, we trust them and work with them.
Stephen CoveyDevelop 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 CoveyImprove relationships with others by assuming that they can hear everything you say about them
Stephen CoveyYour power to choose your direction of your life allows you to reinvent yourself, to change your future, and to powerfully influence the rest of creation.
Stephen CoveyWhat one thing could you do in your personal and professional life that, if you did on a regular basis, would make a tremendous positive difference in your life? Quadrant II activities have that kind of impact. Our effectiveness takes quantum leaps when we do them.
Stephen CoveyBelief is another word for paradigm. It's a synonymous. Your belief of the way things are. Values are the way things should be, it's a paradigm of the way things should be. Beliefs are the paradigms of the way things are.
Stephen CoveyThe deepest hunger of [a child's] human heart is to be understood, for understanding implicitly affirms, validates, recognizes and appreciates the intrinsic worth of another.
Stephen CoveyWe may be very busy, we may be very 'efficient', but we will also be truly 'effective' only when we begin with the end in mind.
Stephen CoveyPeople who exercise their embryonic freedom day after day, little by little, expand that freedom. People who do not will find that it withers until they are literally 'being lived.' They are acting out scripts written by parents, associates, and society.
Stephen CoveyWisdom is your perspective on life, your sense of balance, your understanding of how the various parts and principles apply and relate to each other.
Stephen CoveyThe fire inside people is like a match; the way to ignite that flame is initially through friction, then other matches are lit through warmth.
Stephen CoveyWe simply assume that the way we see things is the way they really are or the way they should be. And our attitudes and behaviors grow out of these assumptions.
Stephen CoveyI keep my phone number unlisted and rely on my associates to handle all voice mail, e-mail, faxes.
Stephen CoveyIf we overcome the pull and "get up and get at it," we will have won a victory. We have kept our own resolve. We can then move to other things, for by small means great things are accomplished. Thus, even this one small step is also in another sense a giant leap.
Stephen CoveyIf you are an effective manager of your self, your discipline comes from within; it is a function of your independent will. You are a disciple, a follower, of your own deep values and their source. And you have the will, the integrity, to subordinate your feelings, your impulses, your moods to those values.
Stephen CoveyWe are the creative force of our life, and through our own decisions rather than our conditions, if we carefully learn to do certain things, we can accomplish those goals.
Stephen CoveyIf you don't know yourself, if you don't control yourself, if you don't have mastery over yourself, it's very hard to like yourself, except in some short-term, psych-up, superficial way.
Stephen CoveyIf you put good people in bad systems you get bad results. You have to water the flowers you want to grow.
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 CoveyStudies have identified a significant 'skills gap' between what students are currently being taught and the skills employers are seeking in today's global economy. Our children must be better prepared than they are now to meet the future challenges of our ever-changing world.
Stephen CoveyWin-win is a belief in the Third Alternative. It's not your way or my way; it's a better way, a higher way.
Stephen CoveyTrust is a powerful accelerator to performance and when trust goes up, speed also goes up while cost comes down - producing what we call a trust dividend.
Stephen CoveyMotivation is a fire from within. If someone else tries to light that fire under you, chances are it will burn very briefly.
Stephen CoveyWant balance in your life? Then sure, get your own act together, but don't forget four powerful disciplines of execution in your team and organization.
Stephen CoveyStop setting goals. Goals are pure fantasy unless you have a specific plan to achieve them.
Stephen CoveyTwo people can see the same thing, disagree, and yet both be right. It's not logical; it's psychological.
Stephen CoveyThe essence of the best thinking in the area of time management (practice planning) can be captured in a single phrase: Organize and execute around priorities
Stephen CoveyThe ability to establish, grow, extend, and restore trust is the key professional and personal competency of our time.
Stephen CoveyThe only person over whom you have direct and immediate control is yourself. The most important assets to develop, preserve and enhance, therefore, are your own capabilities. And no one can do it for you. You must cultivate the habit of leadership effectiveness for yourself - and doing so will be the single best investment you will ever make.
Stephen CoveyDuring the first few minutes in lift-off, the astronauts were strictly controlled and were powerfully buffeted by the forces of nature struggling to keep them on earth. This is somewhat comparable to the pull of the flesh when our alarm goes off early in the morning. Unless we put "mind over mattress" and carry out the resolves made the night before, we will experience our first defeat that day. Not sufficient to finish. Mission aborted.
Stephen CoveySomeone once inquired of a Far Eastern Zen master, who had a great serenity and peace about him no matter what pressures he faced, "How do you maintain that serenity and peace?" He replied, "I never leave my place of meditation." He meditated early in the morning and for the rest of the day, he carried the peace of those moments with him in his mind and heart.
Stephen CoveyHow many on their deathbeds wished they'd spent more time at the office - or watching TV? The answer is, No one.
Stephen CoveyTrust is a competency. It's something you can get good at. It's a strength you personally, and your team and your company can master. Being good at it will elevate every other strength you have.
Stephen CoveyWe are product of neither nature nor nurture; we are a product of choice, because there is always a space between stimulus and response. As we wisely exercise our power to choose based on principles, the space will become larger.
Stephen CoveyAll 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 CoveyBy centering our lives on correct principles and creating a balanced focus between doing and increasing our ability to do, we become empowered to the task of creating effective useful and peaceful lives.
Stephen Covey