Stephen Covey Quotes And Sayings

Stephen Richards Covey was an American educator, author, businessman, and keynote speaker. His most popular book was The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. His other books include First Things First, Principle-Centered Leadership, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Families, The 8th Habit, and The Leader In Me — How Schools and Parents Around the World Are Inspiring Greatness, One Child at a Time. He was a professor at the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business at Utah State University at the time of his death.  

Trust Is The Glue Of Life. It's The Most Essential Ingredient In Effective Communication. It's The Foundational Principle That Holds All Relationships.

You Can Retire From A Job, But Don't Ever Retire From Making Extremely Meaningful Contributions In Life.

What Air Is To The Body, To Feel Understood Is To The Heart.

Most People Are Basically A Victim Of The Circumstances Of Their Life. They Have Things Like 9/11, They Have Terrorism Threats, They Have New War Threats, They Have Economy Problems, And They Think, 'What Can I Do? I'm Basically A Victim.'

A Little Over 5% Of The World's Population Produces Almost 29% Of The World's Goods And Services.

The Bottom Line Is, When People Are Crystal Clear About The Most Important Priorities Of The Organization And Team They Work With And Prioritized Their Work Around Those Top Priorities, Not Only Are They Many Times More Productive, They Discover They Have The Time They Need To Have A Whole Life.

Our Character Is Basically A Composite Of Our Habits. Because They Are Consistent, Often Unconcious Patterns, They Constantly, Daily, Express Our Character.

The True Identity Theft Is Not Financial. It's Not In Cyberspace. It's Spiritual. It's Been Taken.

What Is Common Sense Isn't Common Practice.

The Key Is Not To Prioritize What's On Your Schedule, But To Schedule Your Priorities.

We Are The Creative Force Of Our Life, And Through Our Own Decisions Rather Than Our Conditions, If We Carefully Learn To Do Certain Things, We Can Accomplish Those Goals.

It's A Fact That More People Watch Television And Get Their Information That Way Than Read Books. I Find New Technology And New Ways Of Communication Very Exciting And Would Like To Do More In This Field.

When You Show Deep Empathy Toward Others, Their Defensive Energy Goes Down, And Positive Energy Replaces It. That's When You Can Get More Creative In Solving Problems.

Life Is Not Accumulation, It Is About Contribution.

The Key Is Taking Responsibility And Initiative, Deciding What Your Life Is About And Prioritizing Your Life Around The Most Important Things.

Between Stimulus And Response, There Is A Space Where We Choose Our Response.

Begin With The End In Mind.

Studies Have Identified A Significant 'Skills Gap' Between What Students Are Currently Being Taught And The Skills Employers Are Seeking In Today's Global Economy. Our Children Must Be Better Prepared Than They Are Now To Meet The Future Challenges Of Our Ever-changing World.

Moral Authority Comes From Following Universal And Timeless Principles Like Honesty, Integrity, Treating People With Respect.

The More People Rationalize Cheating, The More It Becomes A Culture Of Dishonesty. And That Can Become A Vicious, Downward Cycle. Because Suddenly, If Everyone Else Is Cheating, You Feel A Need To Cheat, Too.

If You Want Small Changes In Your Life, Work On Your Attitude. But If You Want Big And Primary Changes, Work On Your Paradigm.

The Proactive Approach To A Mistake Is To Acknowledge It Instantly, Correct And Learn From It.

Stop Setting Goals. Goals Are Pure Fantasy Unless You Have A Specific Plan To Achieve Them.

Synergy Is What Happens When One Plus One Equals Ten Or A Hundred Or Even A Thousand! It's The Profound Result When Two Or More Respectful Human Beings Determine To Go Beyond Their Preconceived Ideas To Meet A Great Challenge.

Synergy Is Better Than My Way Or Your Way. It's Our Way.

Effective Leadership Is Putting First Things First. Effective Management Is Discipline, Carrying It Out.

If There's One Thing That's Certain In Business, It's Uncertainty.

People And Organizations Don't Grow Much Without Delegation And Completed Staff Work Because They Are Confined To The Capacities Of The Boss And Reflect Both Personal Strengths And Weaknesses.

Remember, We Are Not Human Beings Having A Spiritual Experience. We Are Spiritual Beings Having A Human Experience.

A Mission Statement Is Not Something You Write Overnight... But Fundamentally, Your Mission Statement Becomes Your Constitution, The Solid Expression Of Your Vision And Values. It Becomes The Criterion By Which You Measure Everything Else In Your Life.

To Learn Something But Not To Do Is Really Not To Learn. To Know Something But Not To Do Is Really Not To Know.

Mind Over Mattress.

When One Side Benefits More Than The Other, That's A Win-lose Situation. To The Winner It Might Look Like Success For A While, But In The Long Run, It Breeds Resentment And Distrust.

It's Amazing How Confused And Distracted And Misdirected So Many People Are.

Strength Lies In Differences, Not In Similarities.

Your Most Important Work Is Always Ahead Of You, Never Behind You.

There Are Three Constants In Life... Change, Choice And Principles.

Management Is Efficiency In Climbing The Ladder Of Success; Leadership Determines Whether The Ladder Is Leaning Against The Right Wall.

Instead, I Have An Abundance Mentality: When People Are Genuinely Happy At The Successes Of Others, The Pie Gets Larger.

When It Comes To Developing Character Strength, Inner Security And Unique Personal And Interpersonal Talents And Skills In A Child, No Institution Can Or Ever Will Compare With, Or Effectively Substitute For, The Home's Potential For Positive Influence.

Leadership Is A Choice, Not A Position.

There's Strong Data That, Within Companies, The No. 1 Reason For Ethical Violations Is The Pressure To Meet Expectations, Sometimes Unrealistic Expectations.

There Is A Heavy Emphasis In Mormonism On Initiative, On Responsibility, On A Work Ethic, And On Education. If You Take Those Elements Together With A Free-enterprise System, You've Got The Chemistry For A Lot Of Industry.

You Can't Talk Your Way Out Of Problems You Behave Yourself Into.

How Can You Possibly Reconcile The Justice Of God With The Idea That Only Through Christ Can You Be Saved? Most Of The World Lives And Dies And Never Even Hears Of Christ. There Has To Be Some Mechanism Set Up For All Those Who Have Ever Lived To Have An Opportunity To Hear Of Christ.

In School, Many Of Us Procrastinate And Then Successfully Cram For Tests. We Get The Grades And Degrees We Need To Get The Jobs We Want, Even If We Fail To Get A Good General Education.

An Empowered Organisation Is One In Which Individuals Have The Knowledge, Skill, Desire, And Opportunity To Personally Succeed In A Way That Leads To Collective Organisational Success.

Every Human Has Four Endowments - Self Awareness, Conscience, Independent Will And Creative Imagination. These Give Us The Ultimate Human Freedom... The Power To Choose, To Respond, To Change.

I Believe In This Concept That You Learn By Teaching.

My Parents Were Just Constantly Affirming Me In Everything That I Did. Late At Night, I'd Wake Up And Hear My Mother Talking Over My Bed, Saying, 'You're Going To Do Great On This Test. You Can Do Anything You Want.'