The 7 Habits

Our students are learning about the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. The Seven Habits are written by Stephen Covey. They teach us to control our own lives and lead our way.

Habit 1- Be Proactive. which means you’re in charge. You don’t let anyone else take control of your life. you do what you want to do and don’t let other people determine your way of thinking. We use these habits to make ourselves a better person. Everyone should be treated fairly no matter their shape or size. We are human. We are all one of a kind. This pretty much concludes Be Proactive.

Habit 2 - Begin With The End in Mind. That habit teaches us to have a plan. For example, what if I am making a poster board for school, instead of gluing everything on right away, I would lay it all out and then glue it down. We need to have a plan for a lot of things in our life. We learn this early on, so we can be really prepared for our future.

Habit 3 - Put First Things First. This habit teaches us to do important things first and then play with our friends. For example, what if I had a ton of homework, but I really wanted to play my video games. I would Put First Things First, do my work and then play my video games. When we all get older we will get a lot more homework,  but we will get invited to many more events. We learn this habit when we are still young to prepare for that.

Habit 4 - Think Win-Win. This habit teaches us to think positive. For example, what if there are only two pieces of cake left you get the big piece and I get the smaller piece. We don’t want to think that you won because you got the bigger piece, or I lost because I got the smaller piece. We both got a piece of the cake and it was a good cake. We aren't thinking win-lose or lose-lose, we are thinking win-win. Not everything is a competition in life.

Habit 5 - Seek First To Understand Then To Be Understood.  We want to make sure that we fully hear and understand what someone is trying to say to us. You might think that listening is a basic skill of life, but really a lot of people zone out and pretend to be listening, then when the person who was talking to you asks for a response you usually say, “That’s happened to me before” or “Really?” What if someone is trying to tell you something really important, we have to learn to be a good listener.

Habit 6 - Synergize. We all have to learn to work well with a group. During a group project it isn’t fair if one person does all the work. Using synergy we give everyone a chance to share their thoughts and opinions. In the future we will be apart of study groups and if one person doesn’t understand it they have to speak up and give everyone a chance to talk. Getting along well with other people is a great life skill to have, we might as well start using it now.

Habit 7 - Sharpen The Saw. Everybody needs a break at one point, habit seven is perfect for that! Everybody has something that they love to do whether it is art or sports, so we all live a balanced life. We need a good education, a balanced physical life (enough exercise). We need to live socially and mentally, but we need to have some time here and there to do what we really love to do!

Habit 8 - Find Your Voice. I know we only said there is 7 habits, but recently Stephen Covey came up with the 8th habit. This habit encourages us to speak up for ourselves. If something is bugging you, you should tell an adult and find your voice. Some people maybe shy but this habit teaches us to speak up.

The Seven Habits are very important in order to have a successful life.
Now ...Which Habit Will You Use?