Interesting reading Stephen's book

Introduction
It has been interesting reading Stephen’s book; The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People just when power and authority is the thing every one desires in this world. I would agree with Stephen’s high ambitions to counter his time management problems while at the same time looking out for his teenage son. Stephen has experienced life for a very long time as he says and I tend to concur with his ideologies in this book. Like the fact that some of his feelings are shared by some of the other readers is also true. However, I find it just impossible how he would find enough time to attend to many courses on time management courses and still complain of the lack of time. Parenting is a responsibility and he has to deal with it.
Response to Stephen Covey’s; The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
Stephen has settled to setting his career goals, and unfortunately grumbles about how this is affecting his personal relationship with his family. This fact is shared by everyone who is in the job market and he has to find a way of making it work for him. He has said that he set and met his career goals thereby “having a tremendous professional success”. But this came at the cost of his personal life and most importantly family life. It reaches that point in time when and I agree with him when you ask yourself and he also rightly did if it’s worth all the success. Does someone has to work hard succeed in life at the expense of his or her family?
This fact tells us something about what to expect in life as we struggle to achieve our goals and also that sensitivity is important since if that aspect is lost the relationship in Stephens’s family would not exist even a bit. I have to agree with the book on that part. I am impressed by Stephens desire to assist his son to be both a perfect student and an athlete although the son is a bit hard to understand. Finally, it all comes to how one perceives issues that the parents get to know their son better. Their responsibility as parents was put to task in psyching him up for success in life. Together with his wife, Stephen worked on their attitudes as well as their son’s putting emphasis on the positives thereby encouraging the son to work harder even in simple things like holding the baseball bat.
Then in the midst of all this confusion they discover that they have to let their son to handle things on his own. Some of us just need to be broadcasted out there and let nature find its toll on those we care for a while at the same time praying hard for them. Whether we have to seek Gods divine intervention if we want to achieve something so badly we can as advised by Stephen, think through problems deeply and pray always. It is through this practice that Stephen and his wife were able to see the potential of their son and let him grow at his own pace. It helped them relax as their son’s own personality emerged. This shows that being religious and having the zeal to request Gods favor in times of need is critical.
The writer introduces paradigms in the book and by their interpretation, they are worth taking home as advice. The caught off guard ideology of a paradigm is one to reckon with. As he narrates the story of the captain of the ship, and his bitter exchange of words with the lighthouse control man Stephen advices that a paradigm shift is the sudden realization of an aspect that we take for granted in a completely different way. The captain comes to terms with a reality in the fog as we all do in our daily lives (Covey 1990, p.15).
In this story the captain changes his course on learning that he was headed towards a lighthouse. I now get it that some things are never meant to change and it is only that when we change our attitude towards them that we can finally get to be on the right path. Am in complete agreement with Stephen since the captain was being difficult but the situation demanded otherwise. Would he not have changed this course? It is only of best interest that the rest not be mentioned.
There are principles which guide people and it is imperative that they do not go unmentioned. Stephen differentiates values from principles and vice versa. He declares that “principles are not values” because “a gang of thieves can share values” even though “they are in violation of fundamental principles” of morals and ethics. While principles are territories, and values are maps. When you correctly map a territory, you have truth or knowledge of the reality as it is. (Covey 1990, p.16).
He suggests that principles are not by any chance practices so the question of them being a practice is out of the way however; there is a clear distinction between the two. As he describes a practice is specific whereas principles are inherent, fundamental truths which include widespread application. They are application ranges from families, marriages, individuals, public and private organizations of any type.
What is a habit many may ask? I also questioned myself on the same as I was reading this book. Fortunately, a well defined meaning of a habit is by spinning around the character within us. According to Stephen our character is essentially a composite of our habits, his maxims are that if you sow a thought, you reap an action; if you sow an action then reap a habit; when you sow a habit you reap a character and eventually you reap your destiny when you sow character This suggests that in order to find out what our true habits are we should start by investigating our characters.
I find agreeable that once our character has settled in us a habit is born and getting out of the habit is like that spaceship being launched into space. As Aristotle once said, “we are what we repeatedly do”. Giving the idea that peoples habits are repeated actions over a long time. And in relation to the seven habits of highly effective people there is a stepwise formation to achieving each and every step which in this case is a habit. The definition of a habit as a combination of both skill and knowledge and desire is the best answer to the question of a good habit.
Effectiveness is a very important tool in the steps involved in this book. As I came to discover the prerequisite to success is effectiveness. The counter of this factor only brings us down in our quest for greater things. The habits are based on effectiveness as he describes. In response to what they really are and what they do to our lives it is only fair I answer with the following excerpt from the author himself which says that habits bring out the maximum long-term benefits because they are based on principles. People effectively solve their problems by creating correct maps maximize opportunities and continuing the learning and integrate principles in a positive growth scale.
With this in mind the combination of the three assets comes into play by being described as physical, financial, and human. It goes further in his explanation to show how these three assets cannot be separated by stating that because people can control the financial and physical assets. This is happening to most business firms in their quest to improve on their production capacity.
The seven habits have been carefully explained in Stephens’s book, I need not stop to explain about the first habit which requires me to be proactive. The exercises that he makes do are quite amazing I get to discover my abilities as unique; they are only true to human beings only. He dares tell us that our ability to do what we do is uniquely human as animals do not have this skill or ability. “We call it "self-awareness" or the ability to think about your very thought process. It is what gives human kind the type of control he has over his surroundings and the development he makes to better himself and his dependents one generation ...