Have you ever heard of Stephen Covey?
Author of the critically-acclaimed book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen has motivated countless people to achieve their goals by changing their mentality behind what it takes to reach them.
What better topic to discuss in Action Karate Plymouth Meeting’s adult class this week!
While we highly recommend that everyone purchase this life-changing book for more detailed reading, we have outlined Covey’s 7 Habits to our adult students throughout the course of this week’s lessons.
After reading these tips, you’ll never work towards reaching another goal the same way again!
1. Personal Proactivity
These first three habits address yourself as an individual. Before you work on your interactions with others, you must first work on improving yourself!
Habit #1 addresses an individual’s ability to respond to situations after careful thought, not on impulse. Understand that your personal life can be managed by modifying your surroundings, not by reacting to them.
Knowing that you may not have power over everything that happens to you, but that you do have power over how you handle it, is half the battle.
2. Personal Leadership
As mentioned by Evelyn Low in her breakdown of Covey’s book, this is more easily defined as developing a habit of beginning with the end in mind.
Setting a personal motto and maintaining constant focus on your end goal will force you to stay within your self-imposed guidelines. This will keep you from getting distracted.
Ultimately, you will develop the ability to achieve anything you set your mind to in a much more efficient manner.
3. Personal Management
This Habit goes hand in hand with Habit #2. Once you have identified your end goal and committed to keeping your focus on it, you must work to discipline yourself to always stay on track. This goes for everything, from time management to goal prioritization.
Knowing what deserves your attention first and being able to delegate your time accordingly will help you avoid any unnecessary stressors that may otherwise arise from a disorganized approach to reaching your goals.
4. Interpersonal Leadership
We now move into the habits that make a person effective in working with others. Once you have mastered your individual effective habits, you may begin to develop yourself as a positive, contributing member of society.
As Ms. Low so aptly states, “You must think win-win, as one person’s success does not necessarily require another’s failure.” A highly effective person understands that it is possible to achieve their goals without stepping over another to get there.
Establish relationships that are mutually beneficial; even though not every situation ends in a “win-win” scenario, your strong relationships will ensure that you have the support group needed to help each other reach your full potential.
5. Interpersonal Communication
In line with Habit #4, Habit #5 defines your ability to communicate with your community. This involves not only your willingness to speak with others, but your willingness to listen. This is usually much more important than being able to voice your own opinions!
You know you have to work together to achieve your goals. Communication is key in doing so!
6. Interpersonal Synergy
If you can understand that the best way to reach your goal is to work with your community and that communication is the most important part of this relationship, then you have essentially reached interpersonal synergy with your peers.
Trust in the fact that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Working together in unison will get you far!!!
7. Self-Balance
Always keep yourself in check spiritually, socially, mentally, and emotionally. Know what your limits are and constantly push them, but do not ever break them. Meditation through prayer, yoga, or other means is encouraged, as is maintaining an active lifestyle, a healthy social life, and an open flow of communication with those closest to you.
Wearing yourself thin helps no one, least of all yourself! You have worked so hard to improve yourself and your relationship with others, and this new lifestyle is the strongest safety net you’ve got!
Action Karate Plymouth Meeting prides itself on teaching its students more than just the art of karate. We focus on teaching each of our students invaluable lessons to help them live their lives to the fullest!
Contact Action Karate Plymouth Meeting today for more information about enrolling today!
