The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change

What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us. OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES

The power to make and keep commitments to ourselves is the essence of developing the basic habits of effectiveness.

Anytime we think the problem is “out there,” that thought is the problem.

If I say “I am responsible,” I might have to say, “I am irresponsible.”

As long as we are working in our Circle of Concern, we empower the things within it to control us.

Direct control problems are solved by working on our habits.

Proactive people focus their efforts in the Circle of Influence. They work on the things they can do something about. The nature of their energy is positive, enlarging and magnifying, causing their Circle of Influence to increase.

If our feelings control our actions, it is because we have abdicated our responsibility and empowered them to do so.

People become reinforced in the paradigm that they are determined, and they produce evidence to support the belief. They feel increasingly victimized and out of control, not in charge of their life or their destiny. They blame outside forces—other people, circumstances, even the stars—for their own situation.