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Stephen Covey

Stephen Covey Quotes

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Famous Stephen Covey Quotes

“In our own lives, having a mind-set of expecting to win increases our odds of winning. It helps us get better results. And better results help us increase our credibility and self-confidence, which leads to more positive self-expectancy, and more winning - and the upward cycle continues. It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.”

MindSelfHelpingMotivationalWinningResultsIncreaseSelf ConfidenceGet BetterCyclesExpectingOddsFulfillingProphecyCredibilityMind SetExpectancySelf Fulfilling ProphecyPositive Self
Book:The Speed of Trust: The One Thing that Changes Everything
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“How does humility manifest itself in leadership and in life? A humble person is more concerned about what is right than about being right, about acting on good ideas than having the ideas, about embracing new truth than defending outdated position, about building the team than exalting self, about recognizing contribution than being recognized for making it.”

PersonsDoeIdeasSelfMotivationalActingTeamPositionHumilityBuildingConcernedHumbleContributionManifestGood IdeasRecognizingOutdatedHumble Person
Book:The Speed of Trust: The One Thing that Changes Everything
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“The principle of fasting is taught in almost all major world religions as a means of developing a higher level of self-mastery and self-control, and also a deeper awareness of how really dependent we are.”

WorldMeanSelfMotivationalLevelsPrinciplesAwarenessTaughtHigherMajorsDeeperDevelopingDependentMasterySelf ControlSelf MasteryFastingHigher LevelWorld Religions
Book:The 8th Habit: From Effectiveness to Greatness
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“If my sense of security lies in my reputation or in the things I have, my life will be in a constant state of threat and jeopardy-a fear that these possessions may be lost, stolen, or devalued. If I'm in the presence of someone of greater net worth, fame, or status, I feel inferior. If I'm in the presence of someone of lesser net worth, fame or status, I feel superior. My sense of self-worth constantly fluctu-ates. I don't have any sense of constancy, anchorage, or persistent selfhood. I am constantly trying to protect and insure my assets, properties, securities, position, or reputation.”

IfsFeelsTryingMaySelfStatesLyingLostGreaterSecurityPositionFameProtectConstantPropertyThreatPossessionSelf WorthSuperiorsReputationAssetsInferiorsStolenPersistentSense Of SelfConstancyJeopardyNet Worth
Author:Stephen Covey
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“Be patient with yourself. Self-growth is tender; it's holy ground. There's no greater investment.”

InspirationalSelfMotivationalSuccessGrowthSuccessfulGreaterConfidenceHolyEncouragementInvestmentPatientHolinessSpiritual GrowthBe PatientSelf GrowthHoly Ground
Book:The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change Interactive Edition
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“In addition to self-awareness, imagination and conscience, it is the fourth human endowment - independent will - that really makes effective self-management possible. It is the ability to make decisions and choices and to act in accordance with them. It is the ability to act rather than to be acted upon, to proactively carry out the program we have developed through the other three endowments. Empowerment comes from learning how to use this great endowment in the decisions we make every day.”

HumansSelfUseChoicesThreeImaginationAbilityDecisionAwarenessConscienceEmpowermentProgramIndependentSelf AwarenessManagementSelf ConfidenceFourthEndowmentDecisions We MakeSelf Management
Book:Daily Reflections for Highly Effective People: Living THE SEVEN HABITS OF HIGHLY SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE Every Day
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“I believe that a life of integrity I the most fundamental source of personal worth. I do not agree with the popular success literature that says that self-esteem is primarily a matter of mind set, of attitude-that you can psych yourself into peace of mind. Peace of mind comes when your life is in harmony with true principles and values and in no other way.”

WayMindBelieveSelfMatterLife IsValuesLiteratureI BelieveAttitudePrinciplesSelf EsteemSourceIntegrityHarmonyAgreeFundamentalsEsteemPeace Of MindMind Set7 HabitsPsychPersonal WorthPrinciples And Values
Book:The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change
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“The personal power that comes from principle-centered living is the power of a self-aware, knowledgeable, proactive individual, unrestricted by the attitudes, behaviors, and actions of others or by many of the circumstances and environmental influences that limit other people.”

PeopleInspirationalSelfActionIndividualAttitudePrinciplesInfluenceCircumstancesLimitsBehaviorEnvironmentalKnowledgeablePersonal PowerProactiveEnvironmental Influences
Book:The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People Personal Workbook
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“Every human has four endowments - self awareness, conscience, independent will and creative imagination. These give us the ultimate human freedom... The power to choose, to respond, to change.”

GivingHumansSelfChangeImaginationFreedomLibertyCreativityCreativeFourAwarenessInspirational LifeConscienceEmpowermentUltimateEncouragementIndependentSelf AwarenessFreedom Of ChoiceHuman PotentialEndowmentHuman FreedomSpiritual AwarenessPower Of ChoiceFreedom To ChooseCreative ImaginationHuman ImaginationImagination CreativityCreative FreedomUltimate FreedomSocial Awareness
Author:Stephen Covey
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“The more authentic you become, the more genuine in your expression, particularly regarding personal experiences and even self-doubts, the more people can relate to your expression and the safer it makes them feel to express themselves. That expression, in turn, feeds on the other person's spirit, and genuine creative empathy takes place, producing new insights and learnings and a sense of excitement and adventure that keeps the process going.”

PeopleFeelsPersonsSelfSpiritTurnsProcessCreativeDoubtAdventureExpressionEmpathyInsightGenuineRelateExcitementPersonal ExperiencesSelf-doubt
Book:The Stephen R. Covey Interactive Reader - 4 Books in 1: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, First Things First, and the Best of the Most Renowned Leadership Teacher of our Time
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“As we make and keep commitments, even small commitments, we begin to establish an inner integrity that gives us the awareness of self-control and the courage and strength to accept more of the responsibility for our own lives. By making and keeping promises to ourselves and others, little by little, our honor becomes greater than our moods.”

GivingLittlesSelfResponsibilityAcceptingGreaterAwarenessHonorIntegrityPromiseCommitmentMoodLive BySelf ControlKeeping Promises
Author:Stephen Covey
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“The 'Inside-Out' approach to personal and interpersonal effectiveness means to start first with self; even more fundamentally, to start with the most inside part of self, with your paradigms, your character, and your motives. The inside-out approach says that private victories precede public victories, that making and keeping promises to ourselves recedes making and keeping promises to others. It says it is futile to put personality ahead of character, to try to improve relationships with others before improving ourselves.”

TryingFirstsMeanSelfCharacterPersonalityVictoryPromiseApproachPersonal DevelopmentImprovementMotivePrivacyImprovingEffectivenessParadigmRelationships With OthersInterpersonalKeeping PromisesInterpersonal Relationship
Author:Stephen Covey
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“Our problems and pain are universal and increasing, and the solutions to the problems are and always will be based upon universal, timeless, self-evident principles common to every enduring, prospering society throughout history.”

SelfProblemPainCommonPrinciplesSolutionsUniversalEndureTimelessEvidentProspering
Book:The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change
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“Whatever your present situation, I assure you that you are not your habits. You can replace old patterns of self-defeating behavior with new patterns, new habits of the effectiveness, happiness and trust-based relationships.”

SelfSituationHabitBehaviorPatternsEffectivenessPresent SituationNew HabitsSelf Defeating Behavior
Book:The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change Interactive Edition
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“If you are an effective manager of your self, your discipline comes from within; it is a function of your independent will. You are a disciple, a follower, of your own deep values and their source. And you have the will, the integrity, to subordinate your feelings, your impulses, your moods to those values.”

IfsSelfFeelingsValuesFreedomSourceDisciplineIntegrityEmpowermentFunctionIndependentMoodManagersImpulseFollowersDiscipleSubordinates
Book:Daily Reflections for Highly Effective People: Living THE SEVEN HABITS OF HIGHLY SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE Every Day
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“Innocent pleasures in moderation can provide relaxation for the body and mind and can foster family and other relationships. But pleasure, per se, offers no deep, lasting satisfaction or sense of fulfillment. The pleasure-centered person, too soon bored with each succeeding level of "fun," constantly cries for more and more. So the next new pleasure has to be bigger and better, more exciting, with a bigger "high." A person in this state becomes almost entirely narcissistic, interpreting all of life in terms of the pleasure it provides to the self here and now.”

MindPersonsSelfStatesBodyNextFunTermPleasureLevelsCryOffersSucceedBiggerExcitingSatisfactionInnocentBoredFulfillmentLastingModerationRelaxationMind And BodyHere And NowPursuit Of HappinessNarcissisticInterpretingBigger And Better
Author:Stephen Covey
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“Once we are self-aware, we must choose purposes and principles to live by; otherwise the vacuum will be filled, and we will lose our self-awareness and become like groveling animals who live primarily for survival and propagation. People who exist on that level aren't living; they are "being lived".”

PeopleSelfLyingPurposeLosesAnimalLevelsPrinciplesAwarenessSurvivalUniqueSelf AwarenessFilledPersonal DevelopmentLive ByVacuumsReactingDormantEndowmentPropagationGroveling
Author:Stephen Covey
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“All things are created twice, but not all first creations are by conscious design. In our personal lives, if we do not develop our own self-awareness and become responsible for first creations, we empower other people and circumstances outside our Circle of Influence to shape much of our lives by default. We reactively live the scripts handed to us by family, associates, other people's agendas, the pressures of circumstance - scripts from our earlier years, from our training, our conditioning.”

PeopleIfsYearsFirstsSelfValuesVisionOur LivesInfluenceAwarenessDesignCreationCircumstancesShapesTrainingConsciousAll ThingsPressureResponsibleSelf AwarenessScriptsCirclesEmpoweringAgendasLive ByAssociatesPersonal LifeConditioningDefaultCircle Of Influence
Author:Stephen Covey
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“Self-awareness is our capacity to stand apart from ourselves and examine our thinking, our motives, our history, our scripts, our actions, and our habits and tendencies.”

ThinkingSelfActionAwarenessHabitCapacitySelf AwarenessScriptsTendenciesMotiveOur Actions
Book:The Stephen R. Covey Interactive Reader - 4 Books in 1: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, First Things First, and the Best of the Most Renowned Leadership Teacher of our Time
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