Stephen Covey

Some habits of ineffectiveness are rooted in our social conditioning toward quick-fix, short-term thinking.

The key to growth is to learn to make promises and to keep them.

If you put good people in bad systems you get bad results. You have to water the flowers you want to grow.

Seek first to understand, then to be understood.

Family home evening is more for the purpose of teaching values and gospel principles, displaying talents and enjoying different kinds of family fun and activities.

It takes a great deal of character strength to apologize quickly out of one's heart rather than out of pity. A person must possess himself and have a deep sense of security in fundamental principles and values in order to genuinely apologize.

Self-awareness involves deep personal honesty. It comes from asking and answering hard questions.

We are free to choose our actions, . . . but we are not free to choose the consequences of these actions.

The true identity theft is not financial. It's not in cyberspace. It's spiritual. It's been taken.

Creating and integrating an empowering personal mission statement is one of the most important investments we can make.

Attending church does not necessarily mean living the principles taught in those meeting. You can be active in a church but inactive in its gospel.

When trust is high, the dividend you receive is like a performance multiplier, elevating and improving every dimension of your organization and your life.... In a company, high trust materially improves communication, collaboration, execution, innovation, strategy, engagement, partnering, and relationships with all stakeholders.

As you care less about what people think of you, you will care more about what others think of themselves.

Happiness can be defined, in part at least, as the fruit of the desire and ability to sacrifice what we want now for what we want eventually.

Interdependence is a higher value than independence

In the space between stimulus (what happens) and how we respond, lies our freedom to choose. Ultimately, this power to choose is what defines us as human beings. We may have limited choices but we can always choose. We can choose our thoughts, emotions, moods, our words, our actions; we can choose our values and live by principles. It is the choice of acting or being acted upon.

Once you have a clear picture of your priorities - that is values, goals, and high leverage activities - organize around them.

Principles are the simplicity on the far side of complexity.

We may find it convenient to live with the illusion that circumstances or other people are responsible for the quality of our lives, but the reality is that we are responsible-response-able-for our choices.

If our feelings control our actions, it is because we have abdicated our responsibility and empowered them to do so.

Stop setting goals. Goals are pure fantasy unless you have a specific plan to achieve them.