How many on their deathbeds wished they'd spent more time at the office - or watching TV? The answer is, No one.
Stephen CoveyRead
Perhaps a sense of possessing needs to come to come before a sense of genuine sharing.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Before we can genuinely share with others, we must first feel secure and content with what we have.
In this quote, Stephen Covey suggests that the ability to truly share with others in a meaningful way is rooted in a foundational sense of security and self-sufficiency. Before we can engage in authentic sharing of ourselves or our resources, we need to possess a feeling of completeness or fulfillment, which allows us to extend generosity and connection to others without anxiety or insecurity.
Themes
SharingPossessingRelationshipsGenerositySelf-Sufficiency
In practice
Example use cases
In a seminar about building healthy relationships, this quote can illustrate the importance of self-awareness.
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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