5 Famous Quotes From Stephen Covey

Stephen Covey was born in 1932, writing years later a book that launched him to fame, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People . Both he and his book have been an inspiration to many people, so today we will discover some famous quotes by Stephen Covey.

It is worth mentioning before that Stephen Covey graduated from Business Administration and devoted most of his life to teaching. However, this did not prevent him from cultivating his role as a writer. Its objective? Help both individuals and organizations to better manage their time, a very precious and valuable asset.

1. Errors from a proactive approach

This first of the famous phrases of Stephen Covey is collected in the book that catapulted him to fame. With her, what she wanted was to allow people to reflect on their mistakes and adopt a proactive rather than reactive attitude.

We live in a society in which there is a great fear of being wrong, as pointed out in the article Fear of being wrong and self-determined motivation in adolescent students . This is brewing from the earliest ages. Therefore, it is essential to learn to change the approach. Because “error” implies “opportunity”.

2. Suffering is always an option

This is another of Stephen Covey’s famous phrases that we can read in his book The 8th Habit . With it, this author wants us to be aware that we cannot control everything that happens around us. The fact that our car stops working or that we are diagnosed with a disease are unpleasant situations that can happen due to very good care habits that we develop.

However, we have the option to suffer or not. We will choose the first if we settle on the complaint and regret a circumstance that is not the product of bad luck. However, we can choose not to take this position.

3. There is only one thing we control: ourselves

In the previous sentence we realized the lack of control we have with respect to what happens around us. However, there is something we can manage: our thoughts, emotions and behaviors. We can change attitudes, the way we communicate, the way we want to use time.

When we want to improve a situation that we complain about; for example a job that we do not like or friends that ignore us, instead of complaining, why not take action? See new job offers, attend interviews in other companies, choose new friends or join a group where we can meet new people. We can control this.

4. Everything is created twice

This fourth of Stephen Covey’s famous phrases allows us to realize how everything that ends up becoming reality on the physical plane has been previously created in our mind. For this reason, many times, people talk about the power that making a vision board can have.

Nowadays, there is a lot of emphasis on visualization. A technique that aims to create in the mind what you want to end up being a physical creation. This has great power. We can start testing it today.

5. Stronger emotional intelligence

This last of Stephen Covey’s famous quotes is aimed at organizations. Emotional intelligence is a skill that is trained, as explained in the article The question of emotional intelligence .

Developing stronger emotional intelligence is vital for all people, but especially for those who play a leading or highly responsible role within organizations. But, this is not easy. You have to work and train this type of intelligence. Therefore, it is conceived as a challenge.

These are some of the famous phrases of Stephen Covey that are collected in two of his books The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People and The 8th Habit . Works that not only seek an improvement that provides positive results in the workplace, but also the personal one. Have you read any of these books?