WOMAN ON TOP
One habit will do
Forget the 7 habits of highly effective people, it's hard enough to even get one right
I’ve never read “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People”, but I know enough about its contents and effect on people who have digested it to be acutely aware that I’m not adulting at half my potential strength, or efficiently.
Every so often, I guilt myself into becoming bolder, better, bigger at life.
The latest occurrence was at 6.30am on Saturday morning, when I’d caught myself sitting on the stoep, browsing Facebook, and having a cup of tea.
In essence, stoep and tea are good and soulful. The social media intrusion is a relatively new phenomenon but research filtering in convinces me that Facebook and Twitter should have no part of an early morning experience.
It was then that I realised how much else I could be doing, instead of Facebooking. The tea ritual was complete (it had gone cold, in fact, owing to online distraction) and the sun was high; it was time to leave the stoep.
Stephen Covey, who wrote “7 Habits”, was an American businessman and educator with a keen understanding of what makes people tick, or stop ticking.
Why the book is a best-seller, according to FranklinCovey, the company which implements these habits for other companies, is simple: “… it ignores trends and pop psychology and focuses on timeless principles of fairness, integrity, honesty, and human dignity.”
This makes sense in the business world, and within the quagmire of relationships, but does it translate into shutting off the phone and leaving the stoep?
Apparently, yes. A browse of just two or three of the habits which make someone effective are telling.
Begin with the end in mind
In short, being proactive, beginning with “the end in mind” and seeking “first to understand, then to be understood”, are good ways to begin the transformation from tea-drinking slouch to determined demi-goddess.
It does work, but only if you keep at it. Having sought and succeeded in seeking “first to understand” I knew that being out in the veld hiking was a better way to spend an hour before 8am and so I did.
The effect of walking in fresh air, surrounded by fynbos, birds, blue sky and no people is hard to top. And the domino effect is obviously a secret known to highly effective people, since the sense of accomplishment and sizzled thighs set in motion a saintly sense of duty to myself, others and the world at large.
I began the rest of that day by eating less, and more healthily, jollying children to get moving and off screens, finishing a work deadline a day or two in advance and spring-cleaning.
I even shopped before noon – which is a highly effective habit to keep since shopping is a plague on my house; nobody wants to own it.
It starts well, but ...
It starts well, being habitually effective, but perhaps the wisdom to “begin with the end in mind” is where the body scuttles even best-laid plans.
I didn’t have a particular “end in mind” once I’d hiked, worked, cajoled, cleaned and shopped.
In fact, there had been so much energy at the beginning, that the only logical end was bed and a book, with tea (a change from the stoep, at least).
It’s possible that highly effective people are capable of maintaining seven effective habits, and kudos to them.
But I suspect – and there may be a book in this, somewhere – that less effective people would settle for mastering just one good habit per year, or lifetime.
And for me, looking forward to my second Saturday bundu bash is a personal best.
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