7 Habits Of Highly Effective Teenagers (1) – Book Review

I have recently started reading a book “7 Habits Of Highly Effective Teenagers” and found that pretty helpful for me and I thought its worth spreading! The book name sounds not much interesting. It seems like it would be full of grandmother’s advises. But it’s not like that. Telling more will only destroy your suspense. So let’s start. I’ve summarized it for you Blog will always consist of “notes”, “Bookmarks of the day” and “Baby Steps”. I’ll try my best to blog about this book daily or alternatively.

Preface

‘If only i could get my parents off my back’

‘I know I shouldn’t be doing drugs, but when I’m with my friends I give in and just do what everyone else is doing’

‘I’ve started another diet. I think it’s my fifth one this year’

‘I think i am going to fail my exams’

Does this sound familiar? Being a teenager is fun but it’s also challenging and stressful. Everything from planning what to wear at a party to dealing with an alcoholic friend can seem overwhelming and complex, but help is at hand.

Introduction

I am your constant companion. I am your greatest helper or heaviest burden. I will push you onward or drag you down to failure. I am completely at your command. Half the things you do might just as well turn over to me and I will be able to do them quickly and correctly

I am easily managed – you must merely be firm with me. Show me exactly how you want something done and after a few lessons I will do it automatically. I am the servant of all great individuals and, alas, of all failures, as well. Those who are great, I have made great. Those who are failures, I have made failures

I am not a machine, though I work with all precision of a machine plus the intelligence of a human, You may run me for a profit or run me for ruin – it makes no difference to me

Take me, train me, be firm with me, and I will place the world at your feet. Be easy with me and I will destroy you.

Who am I?

Habits

1) Be Proactive
Take responsibility for your Life

2) Begin with the end in Mind
Define your missions and goals in life

3) Put first things first
Do the most important things first

4) Think Win-Win
Have an everyone-can-win attitude

5) Seek first to understand, then to be understood
Listen to people sincerely

6) Synergize
Work together to achieve more

7) Sharpen the sew
Renew yourself regularly

Baby Steps

1) The next time you look in the mirror say something positive about you
2) Show appreciation for someone’s point of view. Say something Like “Hey, That’s a cool idea”
3) Think of a limiting paradigm you might have of yourself, such a “I’m not outgoing”. Now do something today that totally contradicts your paradigm
4) Treat others as you would want them to treat you.

Notes

1) Be gentle with yourself
It means not expecting yourself to be perfect by tomorrow morning. It means learning to laugh at stupid things you do. Being gentle also means to forgive yourself when you mess up. We should learn from our mistakes, but we shouldn’t beat ourselves up over them.

2) Be Honest
It takes courage to be honest when people all around you are getting away with cheating on tests, lying to their parents and stealing at work. Honesty is always the best policy, even when it’s not the trend

3) Renew Yourself
We all need a place we can escape to, a sanctuary of some sort, where we can renew our spirits. And it doesn’t have to be a rose garden, mountain top or beachfront. It can be a bedroom or even a bathroom, just a place to be alone.

Bookmarks of the day

• A teenager named kristy once shared with me how much she loved the beauty of the mountains. One day she went to visit her eye doctor and, to her surprise, discovered that her sight was much worse than she had thought. After putting in her new contacts, she was astonished at how well she could see. As she put it, ‘I realized that the mountains and trees and even the signs on the side of the road have more detail than I had ever imagined. It was the strangest thing. I didn’t know how bad my eyes were until I experienced how good they could be.’ That’s often the way it is. We don’t know how much we are missing because we have messes up paradigms.
• Have you ever had friends who seldom come through? They say they’ll call out you and they don’t. They promise to pick you up for the match but they forget. After a while, you don’t trust them. Their commitments mean nothing. The same thing occurs when you continually make and break self-promises, such as ‘I’m going to get up at six tomorrow morning’ or ‘I’m going to get my homework done right when I get home’. After a while, you don’t trust yourself.