This article is great for teenagers who are mature. It is not going to work with immature teens — or adults, for that matter.
This detailed report is practical. But, like losing weight, its advice is hard to follow. That’s why it is best to develop these habits early.
I have extracted only the highlights. Read the entire article.
Habit One: Be Proactive
The first habit of highly effective people is to take responsibility for their own lives; if they fail, they have no one to blame but themselves. Regardless of how you were raised or how you were treated at school you are able to choose your behavior now. Being proactive means understanding that you are in control of the direction your life takes and in control of your day to day interactions. Whereas a reactive person is often affected by their environment and will find external sources to blame for their behavior, for example if the weather is good they are in a good mood but if the weather is bad it affects their attitude and so the weather is to blame for their bad mood.
Here are 6 Action Steps to Take When You Feel Financially Vulnerable
However what most people forget is that between the stimulus and your response is your freedom to choose your response, and one of the most important things you choose are your words. The language you use is an effective indication of how you see yourself and if you use proactive language such as ‘I can’ or ‘I will’ you are starting with a more positive attitude than a reactive person who uses language like ‘I can’t’ or ‘I have to’ or ‘if only…’
Habit Two: Begin with the End in Mind
Those who are effective in achieving their goals are able to envisage their end result despite the obstacles. Highly effective people adhere to this habit based on the principle that all things are created twice, there is the first mental creation and then the second physical creation, and the physical creation follows the mental creation in the same way as the building follows its blueprints.
Habit Three: Put First Things First
Knowing why you are doing something is an effective motivator in helping you take the mental creation and transform that into an actual physical creation of your goal. Therefore ask yourself which are the things you find most valuable and worthy to you. When you put these things first you will be organizing and managing your time around your personal priorities to make them a reality.
Habit Four: Think Win-Win
Growing up most of us are taught to base our self-worth on comparisons to others and competition against our peers. We think we can only succeed if someone else has failed and if you win then that must mean I lose, and that there is only so much pie to go around and if you get a big piece then I’m going to be missing out. When you think like this you are always going to feel like you’re missing out on something and that’s not fair is it? As a result many of us retaliate and take the pie before someone else can take it from us.
Habit Five: Communication
Communication is often the desire to be heard and understood and most people will listen with the intention to reply to what you’re saying rather than to understand what you have said. However to effectively communicate you need to first understand and then be understood because if you communicate with the sole intention of being understood you can find that you ignore what others are saying and miss their meaning entirely.
Habit Six: Teamwork
Interactions and teamwork are some of the most important ways you can learn new skills and more effective behaviors. To synergize is the habit of creative cooperation where you work as a team to find new solutions to existing problems. Synergy is not something which just happens but is a process where you need to bring all of your personal experiences and expertise to the table to enable more effective results than you would have been able to achieve individually – the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
Habit Seven: Sharpen the Saw
You are the greatest asset you have on your journey to achieving the lifestyle you want and so you need to look after yourself physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually. When you take time to renew yourself in all four areas of your life you are creating growth and change which allow you to continue with the previous six habits you have mastered, which still need to be maintained to achieve success.
"if they fail, they have no one to blame but themselves."
Good grief, what sophomoric nonsense. It should go without saying, but apparently does not, that there is a great deal of injustice in the world. Furthermore, no human is a god, much less a god with omnipotent will. No, not one. So it just be that some circumstances prevent the fulfillment of one's plans. This might not be an unjust deed of another person. But, on the other hand, it might be. Just remember all those people that Stalin and his cronies harassed such that their hopes were crushed.
This is untenable gibberish that utterly leaves God's will out. It's no wonder conservatives are so scared of Ron Paul. Did you lift this from Enron's HR training manual? Please seek help!!!
I'm very furgal,,,an thest tatics work,,I use them all the time,,It will be hard for a first timmer,,but try,for 6-8 months,,then look at the end result
Good to start out right!
My mother lived through the great depression and constantly taught me two principals regarding income. First, value (not worship) every penny you earn. So, during the 80's and 90's when kids thought it great sport to throw pennies around and out in the streets, I was picking them up and saving them. Second, always, no matter what your income, take the out the first 15%. Put 5% in savings for a "rainy day" and give 10% to God and charity. It worked for me. The only problem is that all that saving over 35 years earned me is a greedy government telling me and the rest of society that I was the "fat cat" who needed to be confiscated from by those who, instead of saving during their lives lived by the "spend yourself rich" philosophy.
Worth printing and studying to remember and act on. A. Kahl
These points are great advice to young people. Just remember that most of the successful people had failed at different times in thier lives, but did not give up because they did have realistic goals. Examples are Bill Gates, the Wright Brothers, Thomas Edison, the founder of McDonald's fast food restaurants.
This is right out of "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People", by Stephen R. Covey.