7 Habits of highly effective people Book by Stephen Covey

The most fundamental idea in this book, although it's not a habit, it's the idea that we see the world trough the lens of our mind which molds our perceptions of reality. Stephen Covey calls this a "paradigm". In this book, trough the creation of these 7 habits we can shift our "paradigm" and actively construct our reality trough how we act trough our lives.
  Our thoughts followed by our actions, create our habits, defining our character that fulfills our destiny are directly linked with our current paradigm.
  Stephen challenge us to change our current paradigms, embracing real values and imprinting them into our character so that we can choose the right path to our destination in life.

Private Victory
The first 3 habits are about yourself, how you stand in life. Creating these 3 habits it's a victory over yourself.

Habit 1- Be Proactive. Exert your power to choose.
   Pro-activity in its essence means to take charge. The first principle is to have the initiative. A pro-active person takes charge of his life in every situation by consciously choosing how to act and assuming the responsibility for his actions.
  Pro-active individuals act so that they stay ahead of circumstance while reactive individuals are acted upon by circumstance  and end up only complaining.
  Everyone is conditioned by something they can't control. Proactive people realize that worrying about what is out of their control is a waste of energy, focusing on what they can control empowers their ability to steer their life in the right direction.

Habit 2- Start with the end in mind. Find your destination.
   Imagine you are the your deathbed, what would you think about your life, do you have any regrets? Would you take another approach to life if possible?
 The end goal acts like a beacon of light giving you a sense of direction. Once you know where you want to go you can start moving, without a direction you end up going in circles.
  Without a destination no map can guide you and no winds are favorable. It's the same without goals. Starting with the end in mind enables you to make the right choices, choose the right path

Habit 3- Put first things first. Prioritize what is important not urgent.
  This diagram taken from the book, illustrates the idea of time management and how we can prioritize things that are really relevant on the long run.

  While most people are stuck in quadrants 1 and 3, always taking care of crisis then go to the 4th to get a break and forget about quadrant 2, important things that are not considered urgent, well here is the deal, things from quadrant 2 might end up in quadrant 1 if you don't take care of them, for example if you don't take care of your health with a healthy diet and regular exercise your health deteriorates until you have real problems that need to be addressed by a doctor. Or if you choose to procrastinate instead of working on your projects.
   Habit 3 concludes the private victory. It,s the sum of the first 2 principles. Proactively choose to do what your main goals in life require.

Public Victory
The next three habits are victory for yourself and the people around you.

Habit 4- Think win-win
   Most of us have been taught the competitive paradigm, for me to win someone else has to lose. Habit 4 means you have to change that paradigm to a cooperative paradigm.
  Having a win-win mindset means you have integrity to say what you mean and mean what you say, maturity to considerate the other individuals needs at the same time having the courage look for a way for both to win and your need an abundance mentality.
  We have been scripted with a scarcity mentality as if there isn't enough for everyone, with this way of thinking we actually create scarcity trough our selfishness, we must cooperate to fulfill everyone needs in order to create abundance and the only way to do it is to start with the idea that there is more than enough for everyone.

Habit 5- Seek first to understand then to be understood
  Imagine you go to the optometrist and has you explain your difficulties seeing the doctor hands you hes glasses saying they helped him for years so they should help you see to. But it only makes your eyesight worse so you protest and say they don't help at all. The optometrist confused says well, you should try harder, if it works for me why wouldn't work for you? Clearly it's your problem, not the glasses.
  Would you accept his glasses convinced you could see with them if you really tried? I wouldn't.
Has surreal as it may seem this metaphor shows a reality in our relations with other people
  Change the idea of glasses to point of view and the optometrist to someone giving advice and you have a real paradigm happening everyday.
  The 5th habit is to counter this tendency. Only trough empathy you can create real win-win situations . Only when you understand the other individual you'll know hes wants and needs, fears and problems.
  When you take the initiative to understand first you make the interaction much easier and then you can look for real solutions.


Habit 6- Synergize
  Imagine you and a peer see an apple tree, with 5 apples to high to reach on your own. With a synergistic mindset you quickly reach the conclusion that if one you stands on the shoulder of the other you can get to the apples. Alone you get 0 apples together you can get 5 apples. 1=0 but 1+1=5. Synergistic interaction means the whole is greater than the sum of the its parts.
  To achieve synergy both parties must be willing to compromise to achieve something that would be impossible on their own. Accepting and valuing differences is also important to be able to synergize.
  Look for ways people can complement you and you can complement other people.

Habit 7- Sharpen the saw. Renewal
  If you were cutting down a tree and you noticed that the blade was dull, would you keep cutting it or would you take the time to sharpen it? What if you were to cut down a whole forest? To cut down a tree efficiently you need a saw with each one of its teeth sharpened one by one, it takes a lot of time to sharpen a wood saw , sometimes more time than cutting a tree but when you cutting down a forest you'd better have a sharpened saw.
  This principle is about investing in yourself in four different dimensions of your life, physical, mental, emotional and spiritual. By keeping your body healthy trough regular exercise and a healthy diet you keep your body fit and your health in check. Taking the time to do what you enjoy and renews you spiritually, anything that gives you inspiration yo keep going forward he path you chose. Engaging in mentally challenging activities keeps your mind sharp and better able to solve problems. Education is a non-stopping process, we should strive to learn everyday and embrace change has a way of life. Constantly improving our relationships with others by building rapport, creating a sense of empathy where cooperation is regarded as the only outcome possible from that relationship.
  A constant renewal of ourselves is necessary if we want to be effective on the long term, we live in a world that is changing at a faster rate everyday.
You are the saw so keep yourself sharp!

The change must be from the inside-out, by changing how you live your life you will change your life.

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