How many on their deathbeds wished they'd spent more time at the office - or watching TV? The answer is, No one.
Stephen CoveyRead
Look at the word responsibility-"response-ability"-the ability to choose your response. Highly proactive people recognize that responsibility. They do not blame circumstances, conditions, or conditioning for their behavior. Their behavior is a product of their own conscious choice, based on values, rather than a product of their conditions, based on feeling.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Responsibility is about recognizing and choosing how to respond to situations rather than blaming external factors.
This quote emphasizes the importance of personal responsibility, showcasing that proactive individuals understand their ability to choose their responses based on their values instead of being influenced by external circumstances. Stephen Covey highlights that true accountability lies in one's own conscious decisions, reinforcing the idea that our actions stem from our choices rather than our situations.
Themes
ResponsibilityChoiceProactiveValuesBehavior
In practice
Example use cases
During a leadership workshop, one might quote this to inspire attendees to take ownership of their actions.
More from Stephen Covey
All quotes →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.
Stephen CoveyRead
Listen with your eyes for feelings.
Stephen CoveyRead
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.
Stephen CoveyRead
Synergy is the highest activity of life; it creates new untapped alternatives; it values and exploits the mental, emotional, and psychological differences between people.
Stephen CoveyRead
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.
Stephen CoveyRead
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As I bent over the washboard and looked at my arms buried in soapsuds, I said to myself, 'What are you going to do when you grow old and your back gets stiff?' This set me to thinking, but with all my thinking I couldn't see how a poor washerwoman was going to better my condition.
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Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow. It empties today of its strength.
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He who is surety is never sure himself. Take advice, and never be security for more than you are quite willing to lose. Remember the word of the wise man: He that is surety for a stranger shall smart for it; and he that hateth suretyship is sure.
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Right action is better than knowledge; but in order to do what is right, we must know what is right.
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