Many moons ago I had a blog devoted to Stephen Covey and The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.

Stephen Covey is a Harvard educated Mormon management consultant whose company, Franklin-Covey, has worked with prestigious firms and organizations across the world. He claims to have the ear of presidents and great religious leaders, and certainly, his profile as a "general advice-giver" is staggeringly high.

90% of the reason why Stephen Covey is so famous is the stellar and stratospheric success of his book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.

Covey's book, and its follow-ups, which have similar names, is a self-help book with a difference.

What is this difference? To me the primary difference is that it is laid out in a systematic fashion, yet the categories he has divided his advice into, the 'Seven Habits', are wide-reaching and applicable across various sectors of life.

The Seven Habits, then, allowing for some paraphrasing on my part, are:

- Be "Proactive":

Act rather than being acted upon; assume that there is something YOU CAN DO in any situation to improve things (presumably not always easily applicable -- your life-chances are severely limited by what country of the world you live in, for example; see this: The Bottom Billion) but certainly an excellent philosophy to cultivate no matter what situation you are in.

- Begin with The End in MInd:

Rather than rushing ahead, sit down and plan, really take time to consider what you want out of life, what you want to accomplish over the long-, medium- and short-term, in various areas of your existence. Action is good, but action that proceeds from planning and careful consideration is better.

- Put First Things First:

Having worked out the direction you would like things to head, in any given endeavour or activity, do not fritter your time away with things that do not contribute to your goals.

Seek First to Understand, and Only then to be Understood:

If you truly want to be listened to, make sure you give other people lots of air to view their own concerns; be a sounding board, listen without criticizing. Seek to understand others, and normally then they might be open to hearing your own concerns.

Think Win-Win:

Not always applicable of course (it wouldn't work in a game of ping-pong!), but the gist is finding solutions to conflict that do not require compromise, which is to say, losing face to some degree on the part of either party, but instead working together to find third, more creative solutions that both sides are genuinely happy with.

Synergize:

This by-now-overused term refers to the fact that, often, two groups, or two people, can produce more, and higher quality results by finding ways of working together. For example (this is my own example), if the Departments of Finance, or of Employment, of a government are worried that environmental caps on production will hurt the economy, find ways to promote business, enterprise and small- and large-scale business opportunities in the environment sectors.

Sharpen the Saw:

This essentially means to train and re-train yourself in all of the above, and never forget that all skills and capacities need constant work and improvement.

This is Stephen Covey's philosophy in a nutshell. They sound good on paper, but like all of the suggestions in all of my hubs, ARE USELESS IF NOT ACTUALLY ACTED UPON.