You must have a continual improvement process in your life in order to reach your potential. Avoiding the conditions of mediocrity, stagnation, and complacency requires great initiative, vision, and discipline, and can occur only if you are willing to pay the price to live your dream life.
To start living the 7 Habits, Stephen Covey provides the following steps:
1. Learn to be still, to meditate, and to live with some silence in your life. Give thought to your mission statement. Start by making small commitments so you don’t get overwhelmed.
2. Continually Sharpen the Saw and spend time each day renewing the four dimensions of your life: physical, spiritual, mental, and social/ emotional. As a part of this self-renewal process, at the beginning of each day, ask yourself the following questions, then think about your mission statement, what you stand for, and what your purpose is in life:
What is it that I want to do today?
How am I going to deal with my loved ones today?
How am I going to handle today’s challenges?
3. Make deposits into the Emotional Bank Accounts of your key relationships, and nurture the people you are close to. Success and harmony at home precede all other successes.
4. Decide what is really important to you in life and work on that. Say no to those things that are not as important. Work on empowering others to free up more of your own time and energy.
5. Make sure your mission statement is intact, and work on developing a family mission statement.
6. Take responsibility for deciding what your family is all about, then plan and execute according to your priorities.
7. Regularly review the 7 Habits, and teach them to others, such as family members and work associates.
8. Be patient and kind to yourself in the process; however, realize that to make these habits and principles a part of your life, you must pay the price by actually living them, rather than merely understanding them intellectually.