Stephen Covey Quotes

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

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

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

Integrity is conforming reality to our words - in other words, keeping promises and fulfilling expectations.

Most of us spend too much time on what is urgent and not enough time on what is important.

Live out of your imagination, not your history.

Trust is the glue of life. It's the most essential ingredient in effective communication. It's the foundational principle that holds all relationships.

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.

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.

Our ultimate freedom is the right and power to decide how anybody or anything outside ourselves will affect us.

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.

When you really listen to another person from their point of view, and reflect back to them that understanding, it's like giving them emotional oxygen.

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

Improve relationships with others by assuming that they can hear everything you say about them

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.

A cardinal principle of Total Quality escapes too many managers: you cannot continuously improve interdependent systems and processes until you progressively perfect interdependent, interpersonal relationships.

There are three constants in life... change, choice and principles.

There are certain things that are fundamental to human fulfillment. The essence of these needs is captured in the phrase 'to live, to love, to learn, to leave a legacy.' The need to leave a legacy is our spiritual need to have a sense of meaning, purpose, personal congruence, and contribution.

Seek first to understand, then to be understood.

You can retire from a job, but don't ever retire from making extremely meaningful contributions in life.

When parents see their children's problems as opportunities to build the relationship instead of as negative, burdensome irritations, it totally changes the nature of parent-child interaction. Parents become more willing, even excited, about deeply understanding and helping their children. . . . This paradigm is powerful in business as well.

The need to leave a legacy is our spiritual need to have a sense of meaning, purpose, personal congruence, and contribution.

I am personally convinced that one person can be a change catalyst, a 'transformer' in any situation, any organization. Such an individual is yeast that can leaven an entire loaf. It requires vision, initiative, patience, respect, persistence, courage, and faith to be a transforming leader.

We judge ourselves by our intentions. And others by their actions.

Live your life by a compass, not a clock.

Each of us guard a gate of change that can only be opened from the inside.

If the ladder is not leaning against the right wall, every step we take just gets us to the wrong place faster.

Begin with the end in mind.

Habit 1: Be Proactive Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind Habit 3: Put First Things First Habit 4: Think Win/Win Habit 5: Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood Habit 6: Synergize Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw

Happiness, like unhappiness, is a proactive choice.

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

Nothing is more exciting and bonding in relationships than creating together.

Beginners are many; finishers are few.

To touch the soul of another human being is to walk on holy ground.

The most effective way I know to begin with the end in mind is to develop a personal mission statement or philosophy or creed. It focused on what you want to be (character) and to do (contributions and achievements) and on the values or principles upon which being and doing are based.

Lose/Win people bury a lot of feelings. And unexpressed feelings come forth later in uglier ways. Psychosomatic illnesses often are the reincarnation of cumulative resentment, deep disappointment and disillusionment repressed by the Lose/Win mentality. Disproportionate rage or anger, overreaction to minor provocation, and cynicism are other embodiments of suppressed emotion. People who are constantly repressing, not transcending feelings toward a higher meaning find that it affects the quality of their relationships with others.

Life is not accumulation, it is about contribution.

Leadership is a choice, not a position

We immediately become more effective when we decide to change ourselves rather than asking things to change for us.

We are not animals. We are not a product of what has happened to us in our past. We have the power of choice.

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

You can learn great things from your mistakes when you aren’t busy denying them.

When trust is high, the dividend you receive is like a performance multiplier, elevating and improving every dimension of your organization and your life.... In a company, high trust materially improves communication, collaboration, execution, innovation, strategy, engagement, partnering, and relationships with all stakeholders.

A moment of choice is a moment of truth.

Synergy: The combined effect of individuals in collaboration that exceeds the sum of their individual effects.

Motivation is a fire from within. If someone else tries to light that fire under you, chances are it will burn very briefly.

Attending church does not necessarily mean living the principles taught in those meeting. You can be active in a church but inactive in its gospel.

The key is in not spending time, but in investing it.

A moment of choice is a moment of truth. It's the testing point of our character and competence.

Synergy is better than my way or your way. It's our way.