Stephen Covey Life Quotations

Effective leadership is putting first things first. Effective management is discipline, carrying it out.

A mission statement is not something you write overnight... But fundamentally, your mission statement becomes your constitution, the solid expression of your vision and values. It becomes the criterion by which you measure everything else in your life.

Synergy is better than my way or your way. It's our way.

The key is not to prioritize what's on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.

Synergy is what happens when one plus one equals ten or a hundred or even a thousand! It's the profound result when two or more respectful human beings determine to go beyond their preconceived ideas to meet a great challenge.

There are three constants in life... change, choice and principles.

The more people rationalize cheating, the more it becomes a culture of dishonesty. And that can become a vicious, downward cycle. Because suddenly, if everyone else is cheating, you feel a need to cheat, too.

People and organizations don't grow much without delegation and completed staff work because they are confined to the capacities of the boss and reflect both personal strengths and weaknesses

The bottom line is, when people are crystal clear about the most important priorities of the organization and team they work with and prioritized their work around those top priorities, not only are they many times more productive, they discover they have the time they need to have a whole life.

You can retire from a job, but don't ever retire from making extremely meaningful contributions in life.

If you want small changes in your life, work on your attitude. But if you want big and primary changes, work on your paradigm.

Moral authority comes from following universal and timeless principles like honesty, integrity, treating people with respect.

Life is not accumulation, it is about contribution.

Stop setting goals. Goals are pure fantasy unless you have a specific plan to achieve them.

The deepest desire of the human spirit is to be acknowledged.

Most of us spend too much time on what is urgent and not enough time on what is important.

Find your voice, and inspire others to find theirs. Don't ignore that longing to make a difference.

Principles are deep fundamental truths... lightly interwoven threads running with exactness, consistency, beauty and strength through the fabric of life.

I am not a product of my circumstances. I am a product of my decisions.

In the absence of wake-up calls, many of us never really confront the critical issues of life.

Live your life by a compass, not a clock.

We judge ourselves by our intentions. And others by their actions.

If the ladder is not leaning against the right wall, every step we take just gets us to the wrong place faster.

Life is a mission, not a career.

The most important ingredient we put into any relationship is not what we say or what we do, but what we are. And if our words and our actions come from superficial human relations techniques (the Personality Ethic) rather than from our own inner core (the Character Ethic), others will sense that duplicity. We simply won't be able to create and sustain the foundation necessary for effective interdependence.

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

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

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.

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.

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

"If I make deposits into an Emotional Bank Account with you through courtesy, kindness, honesty, and keeping my commitments to you, I build up a reserve. Your trust toward me becomes higher, and I can call upon that trust many times if I need to. I can even make mistakes and that trust level, that emotional reserve, will compensate for it. My communication may not be clear, but you'll get my meaning anyway. You won't make me "an offender for a word." When the trust account is high, communication is easy, instant, and effective."

The enemy of the "best" is often the "good."

In effective personal leadership, visualization and affirmation techniques emerge naturally out of a foundation of well thought through purposes and principles that become the center of a person's life.

How different our lives are when we really know what is deeply important to us, and keeping that picture in mind, we manage ourselves each day to be and to do what really matters most.

Live, love, laugh, leave a legacy.

Live the law of love. We encourage obedience to the laws of life when we live the laws of love.

Inevitably, anytime we are too vulnerable we feel the need to protect ourselves from further wounds. So we resort to sarcasm, cutting humor, criticism - anything that will keep from exposing the tenderness within. Each partner tends to wait on the initiative of the other for love, only to be disappointed but also confirmed as to the rightness of the accusations made.

Vital to quality of life is the ability to work together, learn from each other, and help each other grow.

If you don't have confidence in the diagnosis, you won't have confidence in the prescription.

Keep in mind that you are always saying "no" to something. If it isn't to the apparent and urgent things in your life, it is probably to the most fundamental, highly important things.