Stephen Covey's 70 Best Quotes

Stephen Covey was an American writer and lecturer who, through his work, helped millions of people achieve success through his encouraging words, he had a bachelor's degree in business administration, a master's degree and a doctorate in the same area.

Today he is still one of the most widely read authors in the world, and his book The 7 habits of highly effective people, is one of the best-selling works in the world.

If you are interested in knowing more about the mentality and philosophy of life of this author, you will be interested in this compilation of the best Stephen Covey Quotes.

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Stephen Covey's most memorable phrases

To learn more about the teachings that this great character left us, we bring below a compilation with the best phrases of Stephen Covey.

1. Your most important work is always ahead of you, never behind you.

Always look forward, do not stay in the past.

2. Proactivity is having the initiative and responsibility to make things happen.

Work so that everything happens as you want, do not leave it in the hands of others.

3. The challenge is not to manage time, but to manage ourselves.

Knowing how to govern ourselves is the most difficult thing in life.

4. Many people suffer trying to achieve a balanced life because they have not paid the price of deciding what is really important to them.

We have to be very clear about our priorities.

5. When you show deep empathy towards others, your defensive energy goes down and is replaced by positive energy. This is how you can get more creative by solving problems.

Always bet on helping others.

6. You have to decide what your highest priority is and have the courage to say 'NO' to other things.

Do not feel committed to anything, saying no is an option.

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7. Stop setting goals. Goals are pure fantasy unless you have a specific plan to achieve them.

You only have goals when you work to achieve them.

8. Just as we develop our physical muscles by overcoming opposition, as in the lifting weights, we develop the muscles of our character by overcoming challenges and adversity.

Never let obstacles paralyze you.

9. Trust is the glue of life. It is the most important ingredient in effective communication. It is the fundamental principle that underpins all relationships.

Do not lose confidence, then, you will lose the essentials to move forward.

10. If I really want to improve the situation, I can work on the only thing I have control over: myself.

If you want to change the world, change yourself first.

11. Passion comes from the heart and manifests itself in the form of optimism, enthusiasm, emotional connection, determination. She fuels a relentless drive.

Keep optimism and enthusiasm up, this will help you in everything you set out to do.

12. We have more of a need for a vision, a goal, and a compass (a set of principles or instructions) and less of a need for a road map.

If you can see your goal, then you can reach it.

13. The human being is capable of making decisions based on his values.

If you have good values, your decisions will be the right ones.

14. Seek first to understand, then to be understood.

Do not focus on wanting to be understood, rather seek to understand others.

15. Whatever is at the center of our lives will be our source of safety, guidance, wisdom, and power.

Work within yourself so that you can have security, strength and understanding.

16. An empowered organization is one in which people have the knowledge, skill, desire and opportunity to succeed personally in a way that leads to organizational success collective.

A successful company is one that focuses not on its well-being, but on that of all its staff.

17. It takes great strength of character to apologize quickly from the heart and not out of pity. A person must have self-possession and a deep sense of security in core values ​​and principles to genuinely apologize.

Knowing how to apologize at the right time is great.

18. Leaders are not born or made, but rather they make themselves: leadership is the consequence of choices.

If you want to be a leader, work hard to get there.

19. Start small, make a promise and keep it. Then make bigger promises and keep them.

The most optimal way to get where you want is to commit and be consistent with what you want.

20. The strength lies in the differences, not in the similarities.

Do not seek to look like others, have your own identity.

21. People forgive mistakes, because mistakes are usually things of the mind, of judgment.

A mistake can be made by anyone, that's why it's easy to forgive.

22. People and organizations do not grow much without delegation and work completed by the because they are limited to the capabilities of the boss and reflect both personal strengths and weaknesses.

Do not depend on others, you have the ability to do what you set out to do.

23. Employers and entrepreneurs need people who can think for themselves, who can take the initiative and be the solution to problems.

Be part of the solution not of the problem.

24. Find your voice and inspire others to find theirs.

Be an example so that you can be an example for others.

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25. Learning something, but not doing it is really not learning. Knowing something but not doing it is really not knowing.

Put everything you know into practice.

26. Enthusiasm is deeply rooted in the ability to choose, not circumstances. For those who feel enthusiasm, the best way to predict the future is to create it.

Have enthusiasm in everything you do.

27. Leadership is a choice, not a position.

If you want to be a leader, earn it.

28. Listen with the intent to understand, not with the intent to respond.

Knowing how to listen is a virtue that very few have.

29. If we are trying to make relatively minor changes in our lives, it may be enough to focus on our attitudes and behaviors.

If you master your behavior and attitude, you can have it all.

30. When one side benefits more than the other, that's a win-lose situation.

Find a balance in your life.

31. The good is often the enemy of the best.

Focus on achieving the best.

32. Happiness (at least in part) can be defined as the fruit of the desire and the ability to sacrifice what we want now for what we want finally.

Happiness is a matter of attitude.

33. The key is not to prioritize what's on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.

If you have your priorities well defined, then you will achieve success.

34. To the winner it may seem successful for a while, but in the long run it will breed resentment and mistrust.

Life is a mix between succeeding and failing sometime.

35. We all have immeasurable power and capacity to reinvent our lives.

If something is not going well, we have the ability to change it.

36. Errors of the heart, bad intentions, bad motives, justification that out of pride tries to cover up the error are not easily forgiven.

There are things that cannot be forgiven so simply.

37. If we keep doing what we're doing, we're going to keep getting what we're getting.

If you want to succeed in life, change your behavior.

38. If we aspire to a significant, balanced change, we have to work on our basic paradigms.

To change you have to work hard.

39. The proactive approach consists of changing from the inside out: being different, and in this way causing a positive change in what is out there: I can be more resourceful, more diligent, more creative, more cooperative.

By changing our perspective of the world, our motivation also changes.

40. The ability to choose the direction of our lives allows us to reinvent ourselves, change our future and strongly influence the rest of creation.

If you don't know how to choose which destination to take, then it's time to make changes in your life.

41. There are three constants in life: change, principles, and choice.

To change you have to have principles to be able to choose the right path.

42. If one wants to arouse trust, he must be trustworthy.

What you give is what you will receive.

43. The more we use and develop our current skills, the more skills we are granted and the greater our ability.

If we learn to use our abilities, life regains another meaning.

44. Vision is applied imagination. All things are created twice: first, a mental creation; second, a physical creation.

If you believe it in your mind, it is very likely that it will come true.

45. The deepest desire of the human spirit is to be recognized.

We want others to recognize our worth, but sometimes this doesn't happen.

46. Moral authority comes from following universal and timeless principles like honesty, integrity, treating people with respect.

If we are honest, straight and treat others with respect, that is what others will give us.

47. We see the world not as it is, but as we are.

Each person has a different point of view than ours and that is valid.

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48. Those who make great contributions to life are those who, even fearful of the knock at the door, answer it.

Even when fear presents itself, we must move forward.

49. The proactive approach to a mistake is to instantly recognize it, correct it, and learn from it.

When we fail, we must learn from it and move on.

50. Those who teach what they learn are by far the best students.

We have to teach others what we know, because then it is worthless.

51. The path to greatness is a sequential growth process from the inside out.

If your growth is primarily inward, things are easier to see.

52. If conscience does not govern vision, discipline and passion, leadership does not last and neither do the institutions created by it.

By having discipline, passion for what we do and good knowledge, we can achieve any goal.

53. Listen with the intent to understand, not with the intent to respond.

When you listen to someone, keep your full attention on it.

54. Leaders are not born or made, but rather they make themselves: leadership is the consequence of choices.

If you choose to be a good leader, then you must work hard at it.

55. One of the true tests of leadership is the ability to recognize a problem before it becomes an emergency.

If you have the ability to spot a problem and quickly eradicate it, then you are a natural leader.

56. You have to decide what your highest priority is and have the courage to say no to other things.

When you already know what you want, then don't look at other things.

57. Personal growth is tender; it is holy ground. There is no higher investment.

Internal change does not happen from one moment to another.

58. The way we see the problem is the problem.

It is more necessary to look for a solution instead of clinging to the problem and making it bigger.

59. If two people have the same opinion, one of them is unnecessary.

You have to be authentic in everything you do or say.

60. No matter what has happened to us, is happening to us, or may happen to us, there is a space between those things and our responses to them.

Despite the difficulties, there is always a path to follow.

61. Personal leadership is the process of keeping one's perspective and values ​​before oneself and leading a life in accordance with them.

When we have control over our emotions, then success will come quickly.

62. While leadership decides what comes first, management puts it first day by day, moment by moment.

As we are in control, everything will flow more quickly.

63. Technology will reinvent business, but human relationships will remain the key to success.

Part of success is having a personal relationship rather than a virtual one.

64. This is one of the greatest insights in the field of human motivation: satisfied needs do not motivate.

You always have to look for reasons to continue.

65. Taking initiative does not mean being annoying, aggressive or pushy. What it means is acknowledging our own responsibility to make things happen.

Taking the baton is not a matter of imposition, but of responsibility.

66. Developing stronger emotional intelligence is one of the biggest challenges facing parents and leaders at all levels of organizations.

Having a better emotional domain is a dream that we all want to achieve.

67. The path to greatness is a sequential growth process from the inside out.

To be great we must change our interior.

68. After life itself, the power to choose is our greatest gift.

We are responsible for our own destiny.

69. Management is discipline put into practice.

If we know how to direct our life, then we are capable of reaching the goal.

70. Management is efficiency in climbing to success. Leadership determines if the ladder is leaning against the right wall.

Good leadership helps to achieve success.