Day 15 Of 30 Day Proactive Test

Day Fifteen

Click if you like garbage men.

9:36 AM

At the beginning of Chapter 3 of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey, the reader is asked to take a moment and write down a short answer to the following two questions. These answers will be important as I begin work on Habit 3, or so says Covey.

Question 1: What one thing could you do (you aren't doing now) that if you did on a regular basis would make a tremendous positive difference in your personal life?

It would make a tremendous positive difference in my personal life if I could find a nice organization to do volunteer work with on a regular basis.

Question 2: What one thing in your business or professional life would bring similar results?

It would make a tremendous positive difference in my business or professional life if I could find a freelance job working from home.

We'll come back to these answers later, but first let us put Habit 3 in perspective. Habit 3 is put first things first.

Also, I do not want to forget the Chapter 2 exercises for more blog material, and I think there is one more Habit 1 exercise that I have not done yet.


Recap

The first habit is be proactive, the second is begin with the end in mind, and the third is put first things first.

Habit 3 is the personal fruit, the practical fulfillment of Habits 1 and 2.

Habit 1 says, "You are the creator. You are in charge." It is based on the four human endowments of imagination, conscience, independent will, and, particularly, self-awareness. It empowers you to say, "That is an unhealthy program I have been given from my childhood, from my social mirror. I do not like that ineffective script. I can change."

Habit 2 is the first or mental creation. It is based on imagination - the ability to envision, to see the potential, to create with our minds what we cannot at present see with our eyes; and conscience---the ability to detect our own uniqueness and the personal, moral and ethical guidelines within which we can most happily fulfill it. It is the deep contact with our basic paradigms and values and the vision of what we can become.

Habit 3 then is the second creation, the physical creation. It is the fulfillment, the actualization, the natural emergence of Habits 1 and 2. It is the exercise of independent will toward becoming principle-centered. It is the day-in, day-out, moment-by-moment doing it.

Click if you like songs about going to jail.