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The book is a great read for the person that wants to get focused on a life balance. If you use he princples here in the book and give it a little time it will help.
When I began reading Stephen Covey's "Seven Habits of Highly Effective People," I had no idea that my perspective on life would change so drastically. The habits advocated by Stephen Covey have profoundly impacted my life. I sincerely believe that this book should be read by anyone who truly desires to be effective in their family, friendships, business, and life in general. I highly recommend this read.
In my efforts to be HIGHLY EFFECTIVE, I wanted a crash course, to help me reinforce them, and this was perfect for short road trips. I do not know what I would have followed it as well, or gotten much out of it, if I had not already read the original book, however. It does not not go into depth in the same way the the book does, but it is a very good overview.
I liked this book because of the universality of it: Anyone, anywhere could essentially change their attitudes and lives (in different ways) after reading it. Most of this is familiar information, but the way Mr. Covey presented it proved to be helpful for me. The effect I found most relevant was that after reading, I could relate the habits to many things in my daily life, and I feel that my thoughts were slightly skewed to reveal better ideas, a more postive outlook, and an overall sense of accomplishment.
This is amplified by the following story on Page 278 that was apparently quoted from "The Animal School" written by educator Dr. Since he was low in running he had to stay after school and also drop swimming to practice running. Win/Win is obviously a very lofty goaland he discusses win/lose lose/win and lose/lose philosophies as well and why win/win is the stronger philosophy or meaning thatin a bargaining agreement both parties are satisfied with the outcome instead of one being unhappy and the other one happy about the situation. This book basicallyboils down to everyone getting in win/win positions with otherpeople or what he calls interdependence.
He also developed charley horses from over-exertion and he got a C in climbing and a D in running. In climbing class he beat all the others to the top of the tree, but insisted on using his own way of getting there. I disagree only with a few points in this book. R.H. This was kept up until his web feet were badly worn and he was only average in swimming.
The squirrel was excellent in climbing until he developed frustration in the flying class where his teacher made him start from the ground up instead of from the tree-top down. Also the book talks about playing on individuals strength's instead of their weaknesses. Reeves:"Once upon a time, the animals decided they must do something heroic to meet the problems of a 'New World,' so they organized a school. The prairie dogs stayed out of school and fought the tax levy because the administration would not add digging and burrowing to the curriculum.
This is a very well written book with some great ideas in it. But average was acceptable in school, so nobody worried about that except the duck. The rabbit started at the top of the class in running, but had a nervous breakdown because of so much makeup in swimming. The eagle was a problem child and had to be disciplined severely. To make it easier to adminster, all animals took all the subjects. They apprenticed their children to the badger and later joined the groundhogs and gophers to start a successful private school."This was a very good anaolgy of describing people that may perform well in some areas but not others. Technically everyone in the world is inderdepent with one another with the way the economic sitaution works.
If you look around our current situation we have specialists in many fields instead of generalknow-hows that can do everything but nothing exceptionally well.We have doctors, lawyers, computer scientists, nannies, janitors, soldiers, etc. They adopted an activity curriculum consisting of running, climbing, swimming and flying. The duck was excellent in swimming, better in fact than his instructor, and made excellent grades in flying, but he was very poor in running. At the end of the year, an abnormal eel that could swim exceedingly well and also could run, climb and fly a little had the highest average and was valedictorian. With everyone specializing in certain fields it makes them more useful to the general public as they don't have to worry about doing everything.This book does a good job of summing many things up and it eventually boils down to win/win for everyone if it could be enacted in the real world.Sincerely,Jon Beckmon
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