What habits do you have that make you highly effective in your job, in your relationships, and life?

Seven years after I graduated from college, Dr. Stephen R. Covey published his acclaimed self-help book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. (Covey, Stephen R. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons In Personal Change. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1989.) 

In the book, Covey describes seven habits we should all possess to achieve results based on character ethics when determining our value system.  

The habits Covey details are:

1. Be Proactive - Take personal responsibility for the good and bad experiences that happen in your life and how you choose to react to them. 

2. Begin With The End In Mind - Develop a personal mission statement based on your principles and values to guide you to your purpose.

3. Put First Things First - Understand and focus your efforts on what is most urgent and vital based on your principles and values.

4. Think Win-Win - Value the people in your life by seeking agreements and arrangements where everyone benefits.

5. Seek First To Understand, Then To Be Understood - Use empathy to help understand (not necessarily agree) other people's values and where they are coming from.

6. Synergize - Combine the skills, values, and efforts of others to accomplish more than you could have done alone.

7. Sharpen The Saw - A person should constantly look to improve the mind, body, and spirit by engaging in activities that help the person grow and develop as a whole.  

Covey intends the first three habits as a means of achieving independence, the next three as a means of attaining interdependence, and the seventh habit as a way to maintain the other habits.

Leave me a comment about your thoughts on how these seven habits could benefit your life. Your opinions and perspective are important, and I'd enjoy hearing from you.