Creating habits is very difficult, and when you develop some, you don’t actually know if they are good or bad for your life because, no, not all habits can be considered great. Instead, many of them could be draining your life and making you go the wrong way.
We have a lot of experience in this field as people who have had a hard time figuring out a schedule, working around habits, and better conditions. However, we were lucky to find a solution: reading and learning from others.
Now, you must be wondering what this has to do with the book we want to talk about today or more like sharing some info to help you decide or know if it is worth your time.
7 Habits of Highly Effective People is one of our keys to efficiency and happiness. Why the latter? Because we feel much more relieved thanks to the habits, we have adapted and included in our lives.
Therefore, we just want to make something clear: it is worth your time. But to make sure you believe us, what about knowing a few details about it and some additional info that can be of your interest later or now if you have already read the book.
Effective Habits? Covey Has Your Back
Before we start talking about the book in specific, we need to do our respective job and dedicate the section the authors have earned by giving us great reading materials.
In this case, you might be familiar with the author from other aspects and fields, but it is fair if you haven’t heard about him even once in your life as well. So, no pressure. After all, we are here to give you a little introduction.
The author behind 7 Habits of Highly Effective People was Stephen Covey, who was born on October 24, 1932, and died on July 16, 2012.
Besides being a writer, he was an educator, businessman, and keynote speaker that had great influence in all those fields. Besides the book we will be referring to, he also has other literature works under his name.
His ancestors played a significant role in many of the important developments that occurred in American society.
During his early years, Covey was an athlete. However, after developing a hip disorder as a teenager, he had to turn his attention to academics.
When doing so, he was a keen participant in school debates, and he graduated from high school early. From there, he attended the University of Utah, where he earned a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration.
Covey excelled in his academic career, as he was admitted to Harvard University and received an MBA degree. He then switched his focus from business studies to religious studies and was awarded an MBA degree.
He has been honored with ten honorary doctorates, including the Doctor of Religious Education (DRE), from Brigham Young University.
Covey was inspired by his ancestors and became a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of England, and was elected the first president of the Irish Mission in 1962.
While serving the English church, he wrote several spiritual works like “Spiritual Roots of Human Relations” (1970) and “The Divine Center” (1982).
He started to work on a self-help manual of a different nature in the late 1980s.
When we focus on the 7 Habits for Highly Effective People, it was published in 1989 and quickly became a massive success, while other books followed the release in the next few years.
As you can see, this author has lots of background and history behind him, and if you want a deep dive, it won’t be hard to learn everything you want.
What Is the Book About?
We finally reached this part, and we are sure that those who haven’t read it yet will find it the most useful.
Overall, the book’s title gives you a “spoiler” about what topics are included and what you can expect. However, it can also be misleading.
Many people relate it to simple top or bullet points that will include a few habits and highly the seven more important out of them. To their surprise, this isn’t what happened, but you will need to read the book to know the secret that isn’t that secret.
For now, we can just give you a heads-up of the content.
The seven habits of Covey, or more like the ones he focused on, are made up of the fundamental principles of character on which happiness and success rest.
The 7 Habits for Highly Effective People promotes a principle-centered approach towards personal and interpersonal success. It does not focus on changing your outward behavior or attitudes. Instead, it seeks to alter your inner core, character, and motives.
These seven habits will help you transition from dependence to independence and then to interdependence. For the latter, Covey says that it is the best way to achieve the greatest success, which is contrary to popular belief.
Interdependence is a mature and advanced concept. This concept does not allow you to be an autonomous being. However, it recognizes that working together will yield greater results than working alone.
You must practice each habit in order to reach this level of interdependence:
- Be proactive.
- Begin with the end in mind.
- Put first things first.
- Think win/win.
- Seek to understand first before making yourself understood.
- Learn to synergize.
- Sharpen the saw.
Best Selling Business Book?
Without noticing, there are thousands of business books out there that are waiting to be read, and unfortunately, many of them are just approached by a few. In contrast, others like The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People are the top in the industry.
However, it isn’t the top 1.
This book is quite popular since its reception did not fall behind thanks to the author’s approach is actually explaining how to reach that final interdependence level and has made sure to even change people’s beliefs when it came to it.
After all, we mentioned this belief was contrary to most people. We weren’t exaggerating since you will realize that everyone thinks about independence if you think about it for a minute.
Fortunately, Covey was smart in introducing the idea to the point of selling 25 million copies worldwide and in 40 different languages. Of course, these numbers are only based on the moment of writing this and official statistics.
Although it isn’t number 1, it is on the list of the best-selling nonfiction business books in history, and you can expect many people to know about it without needing to go over many details.
It is hard to know how much the book has made over the years and how much he earned thanks to the sales until the day of his death.
You could briefly have an average if you go over the prices since its release and special editions, but we don’t find it that necessary.
What you must be wondering instead is how did it turn out to be so popular. Well, it isn’t only thanks to the way Covey approached the topics, as we previously mentioned but also how useful the habits ended up being.
People tried them, and more than trying, it was about realizing that they are actually what we need to do even when most of us have heard and read about them many times.
Since Convey gives you the key to finally approach and embrace them, the book’s popularity was inevitable.
Finally, we will be missing a few facts for this article as in our usual book earnings. Why? Because there isn’t much information and facts we can share that is actually worth it.
But don’t worry; we will make sure to update this post when finding a few secrets that Covey might have left behind about his masterpiece.
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