The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Families by Stephen R. Covey
CONTENTS:
A Personal Message
Foreword by Sandra Merrill Covey
You’re Going to Be “Off Track” 90 Percent of the Time. So What?
Habit 1: Be Proactive
Becoming an Agent of Change in Your Family
Habit 2 Begin with the End in Mind
Developing a Family Mission Statement
Habit 3 Put First Things First
Making Family a Priority in a Turbulent World
Habit 4 Think “Win-Win”
Moving from “Me” to “We”
Habit 5 Seek First to Understand . . . Then to Be Understood
Solving Problems Through Empathic Communication
Habit 6 Synergize
Building Family Unity Through Celebrating Differences
Habit 7 Sharpen the Saw
Renewing the Family Spirit Through Traditions
From Survival . . . to Stability . . . to Success . . . to Significance
Notes
Glossary
About the Author
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This book is truly the synergistic product of a team of people. Without their tireless, wholehearted, unique contributions it never would have come about. Each of their names could easily be listed on the cover alongside mine, and I express my deep appreciation to them:
—my beloved wife, Sandra, for many of the ideas and stories in this book, for her constant support and encouragement, for her intuitive wisdom and her education in child development, and above all for her sacrificial dedication over four decades in raising nine marvelous children.
—my dear children Cynthia, Maria, Stephen, Sean, David, Catherine, Colleen, Jenny, and Joshua, and their spouses and children, for their revealing and often embarrassing stories and for the quality of their lives and contributions.
—Boyd Craig, for his superb management of the whole three-year team production process, his unflagging positive energy, his remarkable judgment and counseling on many key issues, and his work hand in glove with Rebecca in the editing process.
—Rebecca Merrill, for her unusual editorial ability in weaving the ideas, stories, transcripts, and research together in a way that truly sings. Never have I had such a faithful translator.
—my dear brother, John M. R. Covey, for his lifelong loyalty and friendship, his inspiration to me in the development of the ideas in this book, his gifted ability to model and present these family principles, and his excellent work as a content leader in Franklin Covey Company’s home and family area. He is also my personal spokesman for this family material. Also to his wife, Jane, a wonderful mother of a lovely family, whose early work on the book team and contributions of stories and learnings from presenting this material have been invaluable.
—my friend and colleague George Durrant, whose early work on the book team and association with us has infused both the book and us with an undying spirit of hope.
—Toni Harris and Pia Jensen, for their second-mile administrative support and their ability to interview and relate with people in a way that has drawn out so many of the powerful stories in this book.
—Rick Meeves, for incredible research and documentation contributions.
—Wally Goddard, for providing the team with decades of the learnings of many scholars, himself included, in the field of family and human development.
I also express my appreciation to many others whose contributions have made all the difference:
—my associates at Franklin Covey Company for their direct and indirect help and support to this project, particularly Greg Link, Stephen M. R. Covey, Roger Merrill, Patti Pallat, Nancy Aldridge, Darla Salin, Kerrie Flygare, Leea Bailey, Christie Brzezinski, Julie Shepherd, Gloria Lees, and our outside counsel, Richard Hill.
—Randy Royter and his associates at Royter Snow Design for bringing the visual and design elements of the book alive.
—our friends at Golden Books, particularly Bob Asahina, for his splendid professional editing and for always keeping us connected to the pulse of the reader. Also my supportive and creative literary agent, Jan Miller.
—the hundreds of families who have so willingly shared their experiences in applying this material in their families.
—the many mentors, teachers, scholars, authors, and leaders who have influenced my thinking over the years.
—the spouses and children of the book team members whose constancy of support, encouragement, patience, and belief have sustained and lifted us all.
—my parents, my three sisters, Irene, Helen Jean, and Marilyn, and my brother, John, for contributing to my happy childhood.
And, finally, I express my appreciation for the goodness of an overriding Providence in my life.
For all children, our common mission
A PERSONAL MESSAGE
Dear Reader,
Never in all my life have I had such a passion for a project as I have for writing this book—because family is what I care the most about, as I imagine you do also.
Applying the 7 Habits material to the family is an absolute natural. It fits. In fact, it’s where it was really learned. You’ll sense this when you read the marvelous stories of how families of every kind share how they applied the 7 Habits and what resulted.
I’m also sharing a lot about me and our family—how we’ve tried to apply it and also how we’ve blown it. Every family situation is unique and different. So is ours. But in many ways every family is similar. My guess is that we struggle with many of the same kinds of problems and day-to-day challenges you do.
One of the personal dilemmas I have in writing the book is just how much to share of our family stories, mistakes, and achievements. On the one hand, I don’t want to sound as if we think we have all the answers. On the other hand, I don’t want to hold back from sharing where my heart is and where I have really learned the remarkable power of the 7 Habits.
I’ve asked Sandra and the children to share also—the good and the bad. Their stories are set off with their names in bold. Perhaps we’ve gone overboard; about a fifth of the stories are about us. But the stories are only illustrations of principles, which are universal. You may not relate to the stories, but I believe you will relate to the principles. And I hope the stories will trigger new ideas that work in your situation.
With all this material, I want, above all, to instill a sense of hope that this way of thinking can really be helpful and can work for you. I know you want to prioritize your family, and I want to share with you a powerful way of doing this in our crazy, turbulent, often family-unfriendly world.
Finally, I firmly believe that family is the building block of society and that our greatest fulfillment lies there. I also believe the most important work we will ever do is at home. Former First Lady Barbara Bush said it beautifully to the graduating students at Wellesley College: “As important as your obligations as a doctor, lawyer, or business leader will be, you are a human being first, and those human connections—with spouses, with children, with friends—are the most important investments you will ever make. At the end of your life, you will never regret not having passed one more test, not winning one more verdict, or not closing one more deal. You will regret time not spent with a husband, a child, a friend, or a parent. . . . Our success as a society depends not on what happens in the White House but on what happens inside your house.”1
I am convinced that if we as a society work diligently in every other area of life and neglect the family, it would be analogous to straightening deck chairs on the Titanic.
Sincerely,
Stephen R. Covey
FOREWORD
At the conclusion of our son’s basketball tournament, I visited with one of the mothers. She said, “I’m surprised that your husband has been here for almost every game Joshua has played. I know he’s on the run—writing, consulting, traveling. How has he managed?” The first thought that flashed into my mind was that he has a great wife and a full-time assistant. But putting that aside, I replied, “He makes it a priority.” And he does.
Stephen once told a group of high-powered businessmen, “If your company were falling apart, you know you’d do whatever you had to do to save it. Somehow you’d find a way. The same reasoning applies to your family.” Most of us know what we need to do, but do we want to do it?
Stephen and I both had happy childhoods and wanted the same for our children. Life was much simpler then. I still remember the long summer evenings as a child playing night games with all the neighborhood children: kick the can; hide-and-seek; red rover, red rover; run, sheepie, run. Our parents watched us from lawn chairs or sat on their porches, chatting and visiting. Often, my mom and dad walked hand in hand to Fernwood’s Ice Cream Parlor to get a double-decker cone. As children we took time to lie on the cool green grass and watch the clouds make pictures in the sky. Sometimes we slept outside on summer nights, after gazing in wonder at the billions of stars in the Milky Way. This was the picture in my mind, the ideal of a happy, secure family.