Stephen Covey Quotations | Page 4

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

Most people think of leadership as a position and therefore don't see themselves as leaders.

We are product of neither nature nor nurture; we are a product of choice, because there is always a space between stimulus and response. As we wisely exercise our power to choose based on principles, the space will become larger.

The key is taking responsibility and initiative, deciding what your life is about and prioritizing your life around the most important things.

Don't cheat people of their growth. Empower them to solve problems and generate ideas. Watch them grow!

When the trust is high, you get the trust dividend. Investors invest in brands people trust. Consumers buy more from companies they trust, they spend more with companies they trust, they recommend companies they trust, and they give companies they trust the benefit of the doubt when things go wrong.

How many on their deathbeds wished they'd spent more time at the office - or watching TV? The answer is, No one.

The undisciplined are slaves to moods, appetites and passions

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

The universal elements are integrity, vision, discipline, passion, governed by conscience. Conscience has been educated through studying and pondering the universal, timeless principles of all six major world religions.

One of the most important ways to manifest integrity is to be loyal to those who are not present. In doing so, we build the trust of those who are present.

The way we see the problem is the problem.

We don't invent our missions, we detect them.

It's better to be trusted than to be liked.

The key to growth is to learn to make promises and to keep them.

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.

Role modeling is the most basic responsibility of parents. Parents are handing life's scripts to their children, scripts that in all likelihood will be acted out for the rest of the children's lives.

If you want to have a more pleasant,cooperative teenager, be a more understanding, emphatic, consistent, loving parent.

How you treat the one reveals how you regard the many, because everyone is ultimately a one.

Always treat your employees exactly as you want them to treat your best customers.

People are your most valuable asset. Only people can be made to appreciate in value.

We develop our character muscles by overcoming challenges and obstacles.

You don't see the world as it is, you see it according to who you are.

Free your heart from hatred - forgive. Free your mind from worries - most never happen. Live simply and appreciate what you have. Give more. Expect less.

Seek to understand before you seek to be understood.

Peace of mind comes when your life is in harmony with true principles and values and in no other way.

Perhaps the most important vision of all is develop a sense of self, a sense of your own destiny, a sense of unique mission and role in life.

It's better to be humbled by the word than by the force of circumstances.

We can never really change someone; people must change themselves.

Be sure that, as you scramble up the ladder of success, it is leaning against the right building.

Moving along the upward spiral requires us to learn, commit, and do on increasingly higher planes. We deceive ourselves if we think that any one of these is sufficient. To keep progressing, we must learn, commit, and do-learn, commit, and do-and learn, commit, and do again.

To be successful we must live from our imaginations, not from our memories.

Opposition is a natural part of life. Just as we develop our physical muscles through overcoming opposition - such as lifting weights - we develop our character muscles by overcoming challenges and adversity.

Internal victories precede external victories.

We see the world, not as it is, but as we are──or, as we are conditioned to see it.

..people are working harder than ever, but because they lack clarity and vision, they aren’t getting very far. They, in essence, are pushing a rope...with all of their might.

To begin with the end in mind means to start with a clear understanding of your destination. It means to know where you're going so that you better understand where you are now and so that the steps you take are always in the right direction.

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

The greatest risk is the risk of riskless living.

Most people struggle with life balance simply because they haven't paid the price to decide what is really important to them.

A long, healthy, and happy life is the result of making contributions, of having meaningful projects that are personally exciting and contribute to and bless the lives of others.

Once you have a clear picture of your priorities - that is values, goals, and high leverage activities - organize around them.

Above all, success in business requires two things: a winning competitive strategy, and superb organizational execution. Distrust is the enemy of both. I submit that while high trust won't necessarily rescue a poor strategy, low trust will almost always derail a good one.

Self-awareness involves deep personal honesty. It comes from asking and answering hard questions.

It doesn't really matter how fast you're going if you're heading in the wrong direction.

The more deeply you understand other people, the more you will appreciate them, the more reverent you will feel about them. To touch the soul of another human being is to walk on holy ground.

A moment of choice is a moment of truth.

See every problem as an opportunity to exercise creative energy.

As long as you think the problem is out there, that very thought is the problem

It's incredibly easy to get caught up in an activity trap, in the busy-ness of life, to work harder and harder at climbing the ladder of success only to discover it's leaning against the wrong wall. It is possible to be busy - very busy - without being very effective.

Love is a verb. Love – the feeling – is the fruit of love the verb or our loving actions. So love her. Sacrifice. Listen to her. Empathize. Appreciate. Affirm her.

Often we are so busy with sawing that we forget to sharpen the saw.

The first principle of ethical power is Purpose. By purpose, I don't mean your objective or intention-something toward which you are always striving. Purpose is something bigger. It is the picture you have of yourself-the kind of person you want to be or the kind of life you want to lead.

Our behavior is a function of our decisions, not our conditions.

Efficient management without effective leadership is, as one individual phrased, it, "like straightening deck chairs on the Titanic".

Be patient with yourself. Self-growth is tender; it's holy ground. There's no greater investment.

Seek to understand rather than be understood.

All things are created twice; first mentally; then physically. The key to creativity is to begin with the end in mind, with a vision and a blue print of the desired result.

Don't get buried in the thick of thin things.

An effective goal focuses primarily on results rather than activity. It identifies where you want to be, and, in the process, helps you determine where you are. It gives you important information on how to get there, and it tells you when you have arrived. It unifies your efforts and energy. It gives meaning and purpose to all you do.

There is so much we can do to render service, to make a difference in the world - no matter how large or small our circle of influence.

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

All things are created twice. There's a mental or first creation, and a physical or second creation of all things. You have to make sure that the blueprint, the first creation, is really what you want, that you've thought everything through. Then you put it into bricks and mortar. Each day you go to the construction shed and pull out the blueprint to get marching orders for the day. You begin with the end in mind.

Inspire (from the Latin inspirare) means to breathe life into another.

Before you wonder "Am I doing things right?" wonder "Am I doing the right things?"

Without involvement, there is no commitment. Mark it down, asterisk it, circle it, underline it. No involvement, no commitment.

He who has a why can deal with any what or how.

Response-ability is the ABILITY to choose our response to any circumstance or condition.

We may be very busy, we may be very 'efficient', but we will also be truly 'effective' only when we begin with the end in mind.

But borrowing strength builds weakness.

People with a scarcity mentality tend to see everything in terms of win-lose. There is only so much; and if someone else has it, that means there will be less for me. The more principle-centered we become, the more we develop an abundance mentality, the more we are genuinely happy for the successes, well-being, achievements, recognition, and good fortune of other people. We believe their success adds to...rather than detracts from...our lives.

we're responsible for our own lives.

Two people can see the same thing, disagree, and yet both be right. It's not logical; it's psychological.

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

The commitments we make to ourselves and to others, and our integrity to those commitments, is the essence and clearest manifestation of our proactivity.

Always surround yourself with people who are even more talented and competent than you.

Success is when you realize obstacles you face are challenges to help you become better - and your response equals the challenge.

Strength lies in differences, not in similarities

To ignore the unexpected (even if it were possible) would be to live without opportunity, spontaneity, and the rich moments of which "life" is made.

I can change. I can live out of my imagination instead of my memory. I can tie myself to my limitless potential instead of my limiting past

Happiness can be defined, in part at least, as the fruit of the desire and ability to sacrifice what we want now for what we want eventually.

The human will is an amazing thing. Time after time, it has triumphed against unbelievable odds.

Anyone can count the seeds of an apple. Who can count the apples in a seed?

Most of us think we don't have enough time to exercise. What a distorted paradigm! We don't have time not to. We're talking about three to six hours a week - or a minimum of thirty minutes a day, every other day. That hardly seems an inordinate amount of time considering the tremendous benefits in terms of the impact on the other 162 - 165 hours of the week.

Some people achieve the top of the ladder and only then realise it was standing against the wrong wall.

Everyone chooses one of two roads in life - the old and the young, the rich and the poor, men and women alike. One is the broad, well-traveled road to mediocrity, the other road to greatness and meaning.

Begin each day with the blueprint of my deepest values FIRMLY in mind then when challenges come, make decisions BASED on those values.

Almost every significant breakthrough is the result of a courageous break with traditional ways of thinking.

Only after we can learn to forgive ourselves can we accept others as they are because we don't feel threatened by anything about them which is better than us.

Petty things become unimportant when people are impassioned about a purpose higher than self.

Anything less then a conscious commitment to the important is an unconscious commitment to the unimportant.

Link yourself to your potential, not to your past.

The key to motivation is motive. It's the why. It's the deeper yes! burning inside that makes it easier to say no to the less important.

Synergy is the highest activity of life; it creates new untapped alternatives; it values and exploits the mental, emotional, and psychological differences between people.

It is one thing to make a mistake, and quite another thing not to admit it. People will forgive mistakes, because mistakes are usually of the mind, mistakes of judgment. But people will not easily forgive the mistakes of the heart, the ill intention, the bad motives, the prideful justifying cover-up of the first mistake.

Fundamentally, we are a product of choice, not nature (genes) or nurture (upbringing, environment).

An empowered organization is one in which individuals have the knowledge, skill, desire, and opportunity to personally succeed in a way that leads to collective organizational success.

Trust is the highest form of human motivation.

All broken relationships can be traced back to broken agreements

One of the best ways to educate our hearts is to look at our interaction with other people, because our relationships with others are fundamentally a reflection of our relationship with ourselves.