How many on their deathbeds wished they'd spent more time at the office - or watching TV? The answer is, No one.
Stephen CoveyRead
Effective people stay out of Quadrants III and IV because, urgent or not, they aren't important. They also shrink Quadrant I down to size by spending more time in Quadrant II...Quadrant II is the heart of effective personal management.
Interpretation
Effective personal management focuses on prioritizing important tasks over urgent but less significant ones.
In this quote, Stephen Covey emphasizes the importance of distinguishing between urgent and important tasks for effective personal management. He categorizes tasks into four quadrants, advocating that successful individuals dedicate their efforts to Quadrant II, which encompasses planning and preparation, thereby minimizing time spent on less critical issues that may seem urgent.
In practice
In a workshop on personal effectiveness, one might use this quote to illustrate the importance of prioritizing tasks.
How many on their deathbeds wished they'd spent more time at the office - or watching TV? The answer is, No one.
If you want to have a more pleasant, cooperative teenager, be a more understanding, empathic, consistent, loving parent. If you want to have more freedom, more latitude in your job, be a more responsible, a more helpful, a more contributing employee.
Listen with your eyes for feelings.
If we live out of our memory, we're tied to the past and to that which is finite. When we live out of our imagination, _x000D_ we're tied to that which is infinite.
Synergy is the highest activity of life; it creates new untapped alternatives; it values and exploits the mental, emotional, and psychological differences between people.
Keep in mind that you are always saying "no" to something. If it isn't to the apparent and urgent things in your life, it is probably to the most fundamental, highly important things.
The one who confidently looks forward to an eternal reward for his efforts in mortality is constantly sustained through his deepest trials. When he is disappointed in love, he does not commit suicide. When loved ones die, he doesn’t despair; when he loses a coveted contest, he doesn’t falter; when war and destruction dissipate his future, he doesn’t sink into a depression. He lives above his world and never loses sight of the goal of his salvation.
Spiritual maturity is not reached by the passing of the years, but by obedience to the will of God. Some people mature into an understanding of God’s will more quickly than others because they obey more readily; they more readily sacrifice the life of nature to the will of God.
Your past is important but it is not nearly as important to your present as the way you see your future.
Violence does, in truth, recoil upon the violent, and the schemer falls into the pit which he digs for another.
As for disappointing them I should not so much mind; but I can't abide to disappoint myself.
My religious superstition gave place to rational ideas based on scientific facts, and in proportion as I looked at everything from a new standpoint, I grew more happy day by day.
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