The Habit of Being Effective

   With over 15 million copies sold, I have to admit that just recently I had the chance to buy and read “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People”, by Stephen Covey. Very well structured and with extraordinary ideas, this book is definitely one of the books that are so useful to read at least once in life. But of course, that like any other great book must be doubled with action in order to see the results we want in our life.

   Practically, what Stephen Covey highlights as a first major idea is to stay focused on the Inside-Out approach. Difficult? Big time. Is it worth it? Big time. In the moment when we will make a habit even from this idea of stop waiting from others to come towards our expectations, and start focusing on what we can do in order to see a difference, very quickly we will see the results. I have the feeling that this “waiting” for something or somebody to fulfill our goals, needs, and desires, is a big issue of our times. 

   Coming back to the 7 habits, Stephen Covey presents them like this:

         a) In the Private Victory he includes:

1)      Be proactive – Principles of Personal Vision

2)      Begin with the end in mind – Principles of Personal Leadership

3)      Put first things first – Principles of Personal Management

          b) In the Public Victory he includes:

4)      Think win/win – Principles of Interpersonal Leadership

5)      Seek first to understand, then to be understood – Principles of Empathetic Communication

6)      Synergize – Principles of Creative Cooperation

          c) Renewal

7)      Sharpen the saw – Principles of Balanced Self-Renewal

   At a certain point, he also talks about the paradigm of interdependence, a great concept that is so well explained by Stephen Covey. I could give you a few details in my article about this, but I think you will have so much more to gain if you will end up reading the book. Also, I believe it is not random the fact that Stephen Covey chose to insert in the title of his book the word “habits”. Practically, in order to see great results in all areas of your life, you need to have great healthy habits. And actions become habits through repetition. 

   Bringing all together, I always have the feeling that everything I read about personal development so to say becomes more useful and powerful if I constantly develop that component of emotional intelligence which makes a big difference in our life. Everything depends only on us and stays in our power to what kind of difference we want to make.  

   If you were to choose one habit out of these seven and start taking action related today, what would that be?

A Gift for A Lifetime

   

Magic shadow light

   It’s been a while since my last post, and after a very relaxing mini-holiday for Easter (which I hope you've had too), it feels like coming back with lots of strengths :) The main idea of this article is about the impact has in our life our childhood and what are the most important lessons we had the chance to learn starting since then.

   Precisely on the first day of Easter, I had the chance to visit my childhood village, and through this visit to receive a great gift from my dear grandmother, so to say. It’s been more then two years from my last visit and probably that is why the impact of seeing those places was quite huge. I suppose every one of us feels something special when we revisit a place that represents something very important for us.

   Coming back to my extraordinary gift, I had the chance to discuss so many beautiful things with my almost 89 years old grandmother, things that made me realize once again that we are the sum of every moment, action, and interaction from our life. I even found out some interesting things about her and my grandfather. How they have met when she was only 20 years old, and my grandpa 27, after his return from Russia, where he was captured for 8 years as the World War II prisoner.  

   My dear grandparents hadn’t had the opportunity to go for a long time in school. Actually, only my grandfather went to school for four years. But even if they didn’t have the chance to develop different cultural school related abilities, they taught me so many life related lessons. I remember so clearly how they’ve talked with each other, in a supportive and calm way. The fact that they knew exactly how to split their activities and how to be a real “team” (after all they had 4 children, out of which 3 survive those times, and 64 years of marriage at the time my grandfather passed away). 

   I’ve spent my childhood and a long time from my adolescence with them, enough to see what true love means. What kind of activities they had and what other marvelous character features they had. I remember that my first swing seat was built up in a cherry tree by my grandfather, the same cherry tree that I’ve climbed for picking delicious cherries in order to share them with my friends.  

   After years, I’ve realized that probably my hobby for reading came from my dear grandfather, because, even if at that time he hadn’t had many books, he was eager to read whatever old newspaper he’s found in his back yard. And even my surname which I like very much I have it from them ;)

   As a sort of conclusion: remember and be proud of who you are from an internal and values point of view because what is truly important is the inside out approach. No matter where you were born, how many schools you’ve graduated, or what goods purchased you possess, they are worthless without your inner valuable self. And all together with the extraordinary people you interact every day and with what kind of activities you fill your time with. 

   For the moment many pictures from that short trip are been processed, but promise to came back with them as soon as possible and I hope these ones captured with my lovely phone be representative as well :)