I see seven unique human endowments or capabilities
associated with The Seven Habits of Highly Effective
People. One way to revisit The Seven Habits of Highly
Effective People is to identify the unique human
capability or endowment associated with each habit.
The primary human endowments are 1) self-awareness or
self-knowledge; 2) imagination and conscience; and 3)
volition or will power. And the secondary endowments
are 4) an abundance mentality; 5) courage and
consideration; and 6) creativity. The seventh
endowment is self-renewal. These are all unique human
endowments; animals don't possess any of them. But,
they are all on a continuum of low to high levels.
Associated with Habit 1:
Be Proactive is the endowment of self-knowledge or
self-awareness, an ability to choose your response
(response-ability). At the low end of the continuum
are the ineffective people who transfer responsibility
by blaming themselves or others or their environment
anything or anybody "out there" so that they are not
responsible for results. At the upper end of the
continuum toward increasing effectiveness is
self-awareness: "I know my tendencies; I know the
scripts or programs that are in me; but I am not those
scripts. I can rewrite my scripts." You are aware that
you are the creative force of your life. You are not
the victim of conditions or conditioning. You can
choose your response to any situation, to any person.
So on the continuum; you go from being a victim to
self-determining creative power through self-awareness
of the power to choose your response to any condition
or conditioning.
Associated with Habit 2:
Begin With the End In Mind is the endowment of
imagination and conscience. If you are the programmer,
write the program. Decide what you're going to do with
the time, talent, and tools you have to work with:
"Within my small circle of influence, I'm going to
decide." At the low end of the continuum is the sense
of futility about goals, purposes, and improvement
efforts. After all, if you are totally a victim, if
you are a product of what has happened to you, then
what can you realistically do about anything? So you
wander through life hoping things will turn out well,
that the environment may be positive, so you can have
your daily bread and maybe some positive fruits. At
the other end is a sense of hope and purpose: "I have
created the future in my mind. I can see it, and I can
imagine what it will be like." Only people have the
capability to imagine a new course of action and
pursue it conscientiously.
Associated with Habit 3:
Put First Things First is the endowment of willpower.
At the low end of the continuum is the ineffective,
flaky life of floating and coasting, avoiding
responsibility and taking the easy way out, exercising
little initiative or willpower. And at the top end is
a highly disciplined life that focuses heavily on the
highly important but not necessarily urgent activities
of life. It's a life of leverage and influence. On the
continuum, you go from being driven by crises and
having can't and won't power to being focused on the
important but not necessarily urgent matters of your
life and having the will power to realize them.
The exercise of primary human endowments empowers you
to use the secondary endowments more effectively. We
will now move from Primary to Secondary Endowments.
Associated with Habit 4:
Think Win-Win is the endowment of an abundance
mentality. Why? Because your security comes from
principles. Everything is seen through principles.
When your wife makes a mistake, you're not accusatory.
Why? Your security does not come from your wife living
up to your expectations. Your security comes from
within yourself. You're principle-centered. As people
become increasingly principle-centered, they love to
share recognition and power. Why? It's not a limited
pie. It's an ever-enlarging pie. The basic paradigm
and assumption about limited resources is flawed. The
great capabilities of people are hardly even tapped.
The abundance mentality produces more profit, power,
and recognition for everybody. On the continuum, you
go from a scarcity to an abundance mentality through
feelings of intrinsic self-worth and a benevolent
desire for mutual benefit.
Associated with Habit 5:
Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood is the
endowment of courage balanced with consideration. Does
it take courage and consideration to not be understood
first? Think about it. Think about the problems you
face. You tend to think, "You need to understand me,
but you don't understand. I understand you, but you
don't understand me. So let me tell you my story
first, and then you can say what you want." And the
other person says, "Okay, I'll try to understand." But
the whole time they're "listening," they're preparing
their reply. They are just pretending to listen,
selective listening. When you show your home movies or
tell some chapter of you autobiography "let me tell
you my experience" the other person is tuned out
unless he feels understood.
But what happens when you truly listen to another
person? The whole relationship is transformed:
"Someone started listening to me and they seemed to
savor my words. They didn't agree or disagree, they
just were listening and I felt as if they were seeing
how I saw the world. And in that process, I found
myself listening to myself. I started to feel a worth
in myself."
The root cause of almost all people problems is the
basic communication problem people do not listen with
empathy. They listen from within their autobiography.
They lack the skill and attitude of empathy. They need
approval; they lack courage. The ability to listen
first requires restraint, respect, and reverence. And
the ability to make yourself understood requires
courage and consideration. On the continuum, you go
from fight and flight instincts to mature two-way
communication where courage is balanced with
consideration.
Associated with Habit 6:
Synergize is the endowment of creativity, the creation
of something. How? By yourself? No, through two
respectful minds communicating, producing solutions
that are far better than what either originally
proposed. Most negotiation is positional bargaining
and results, at best, in compromise. But when you get
into synergistic communication, you leave position.
You understand basic underlying needs and interests
and find solutions to satisfy them both. You get
people thinking. And if you get the spirit of
teamwork, you start to build a very powerful bond, an
emotional bank account, and people are willing to
subordinate their immediate wants for long-term
relationships. With courage and consideration,
communicate openly with each other and try to create
win-win solutions. On the continuum, you go from
defensive communication to compromise transactions to
synergistic and creative alternatives and
transformations.
Associated with Habit 7:
Sharpen the Saw is the unique endowment of continuous
improvement or self-renewal to overcome entropy. If
you don't constantly improve and renew yourself,
you'll fall into entropy, closed systems and styles.
At one end of the continuum is entropy (everything
breaks down), and the other end is continuous
improvement, innovation, and refinement. On the
continuum, you go from a condition of entropy to a
condition of continuous renewal, improvement,
innovation, and refinement.
My hope in revisiting the Seven Habits is that you
will use the seven unique human endowments associated
with them to bless and benefit the lives of many other
people.
associated with The Seven Habits of Highly Effective
People. One way to revisit The Seven Habits of Highly
Effective People is to identify the unique human
capability or endowment associated with each habit.
The primary human endowments are 1) self-awareness or
self-knowledge; 2) imagination and conscience; and 3)
volition or will power. And the secondary endowments
are 4) an abundance mentality; 5) courage and
consideration; and 6) creativity. The seventh
endowment is self-renewal. These are all unique human
endowments; animals don't possess any of them. But,
they are all on a continuum of low to high levels.
Associated with Habit 1:
Be Proactive is the endowment of self-knowledge or
self-awareness, an ability to choose your response
(response-ability). At the low end of the continuum
are the ineffective people who transfer responsibility
by blaming themselves or others or their environment
anything or anybody "out there" so that they are not
responsible for results. At the upper end of the
continuum toward increasing effectiveness is
self-awareness: "I know my tendencies; I know the
scripts or programs that are in me; but I am not those
scripts. I can rewrite my scripts." You are aware that
you are the creative force of your life. You are not
the victim of conditions or conditioning. You can
choose your response to any situation, to any person.
So on the continuum; you go from being a victim to
self-determining creative power through self-awareness
of the power to choose your response to any condition
or conditioning.
Associated with Habit 2:
Begin With the End In Mind is the endowment of
imagination and conscience. If you are the programmer,
write the program. Decide what you're going to do with
the time, talent, and tools you have to work with:
"Within my small circle of influence, I'm going to
decide." At the low end of the continuum is the sense
of futility about goals, purposes, and improvement
efforts. After all, if you are totally a victim, if
you are a product of what has happened to you, then
what can you realistically do about anything? So you
wander through life hoping things will turn out well,
that the environment may be positive, so you can have
your daily bread and maybe some positive fruits. At
the other end is a sense of hope and purpose: "I have
created the future in my mind. I can see it, and I can
imagine what it will be like." Only people have the
capability to imagine a new course of action and
pursue it conscientiously.
Associated with Habit 3:
Put First Things First is the endowment of willpower.
At the low end of the continuum is the ineffective,
flaky life of floating and coasting, avoiding
responsibility and taking the easy way out, exercising
little initiative or willpower. And at the top end is
a highly disciplined life that focuses heavily on the
highly important but not necessarily urgent activities
of life. It's a life of leverage and influence. On the
continuum, you go from being driven by crises and
having can't and won't power to being focused on the
important but not necessarily urgent matters of your
life and having the will power to realize them.
The exercise of primary human endowments empowers you
to use the secondary endowments more effectively. We
will now move from Primary to Secondary Endowments.
Associated with Habit 4:
Think Win-Win is the endowment of an abundance
mentality. Why? Because your security comes from
principles. Everything is seen through principles.
When your wife makes a mistake, you're not accusatory.
Why? Your security does not come from your wife living
up to your expectations. Your security comes from
within yourself. You're principle-centered. As people
become increasingly principle-centered, they love to
share recognition and power. Why? It's not a limited
pie. It's an ever-enlarging pie. The basic paradigm
and assumption about limited resources is flawed. The
great capabilities of people are hardly even tapped.
The abundance mentality produces more profit, power,
and recognition for everybody. On the continuum, you
go from a scarcity to an abundance mentality through
feelings of intrinsic self-worth and a benevolent
desire for mutual benefit.
Associated with Habit 5:
Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood is the
endowment of courage balanced with consideration. Does
it take courage and consideration to not be understood
first? Think about it. Think about the problems you
face. You tend to think, "You need to understand me,
but you don't understand. I understand you, but you
don't understand me. So let me tell you my story
first, and then you can say what you want." And the
other person says, "Okay, I'll try to understand." But
the whole time they're "listening," they're preparing
their reply. They are just pretending to listen,
selective listening. When you show your home movies or
tell some chapter of you autobiography "let me tell
you my experience" the other person is tuned out
unless he feels understood.
But what happens when you truly listen to another
person? The whole relationship is transformed:
"Someone started listening to me and they seemed to
savor my words. They didn't agree or disagree, they
just were listening and I felt as if they were seeing
how I saw the world. And in that process, I found
myself listening to myself. I started to feel a worth
in myself."
The root cause of almost all people problems is the
basic communication problem people do not listen with
empathy. They listen from within their autobiography.
They lack the skill and attitude of empathy. They need
approval; they lack courage. The ability to listen
first requires restraint, respect, and reverence. And
the ability to make yourself understood requires
courage and consideration. On the continuum, you go
from fight and flight instincts to mature two-way
communication where courage is balanced with
consideration.
Associated with Habit 6:
Synergize is the endowment of creativity, the creation
of something. How? By yourself? No, through two
respectful minds communicating, producing solutions
that are far better than what either originally
proposed. Most negotiation is positional bargaining
and results, at best, in compromise. But when you get
into synergistic communication, you leave position.
You understand basic underlying needs and interests
and find solutions to satisfy them both. You get
people thinking. And if you get the spirit of
teamwork, you start to build a very powerful bond, an
emotional bank account, and people are willing to
subordinate their immediate wants for long-term
relationships. With courage and consideration,
communicate openly with each other and try to create
win-win solutions. On the continuum, you go from
defensive communication to compromise transactions to
synergistic and creative alternatives and
transformations.
Associated with Habit 7:
Sharpen the Saw is the unique endowment of continuous
improvement or self-renewal to overcome entropy. If
you don't constantly improve and renew yourself,
you'll fall into entropy, closed systems and styles.
At one end of the continuum is entropy (everything
breaks down), and the other end is continuous
improvement, innovation, and refinement. On the
continuum, you go from a condition of entropy to a
condition of continuous renewal, improvement,
innovation, and refinement.
My hope in revisiting the Seven Habits is that you
will use the seven unique human endowments associated
with them to bless and benefit the lives of many other
people.
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