Date posted: December 29^th 2016

Book Title: Seven Habits of Highly Effective People

Book-in-a-sentence

My Summary (audio)

My Summary (text)

Contents

1. Introduction
2. P/PC balance
3. Habit 1: Being proactive
4. Habit 2: Begin with the end in mind
5. Habit 3: Put first things first
6. Public victories
7. Habit 4: Think Win/win
8. Habit 5: Seek first to understand, then to be understood
9. Habit 6: Synergize
10. Habit 7: Renewal
11. Comments

Introduction

The first thing Stephen talks about is our character and how it defines us. He insists that who we are should not be defined by the outermost part of ourselves (that is our personality) but rather by our innermost foundation, meaning our character. It is very well established from the beginning of the book that there is a key difference between personality and character. Unfortunately many self improvement practices focus on personality only. Mottos like “think positively” or encouragement words like “we can do it!” or company practices that force their employees to smile... always.

The problem is that these are nothing but illusions. They may help us get by, and perhaps even be successful, but the truth is that they are not shaping the roots of who we are, not even the tree trunk. We can put on a personality mask for a day, fake a smile, and think positively (i.e. grow a couple of leaves). But, to develop a sense of fulfilment, and a confident vision of our lives (which would actually be the tree trunk of our character) is very [very!] different—and most importantly, it takes a lot of effort and time. We can't just fake that for a day!

If you look at the image above, it's very easy to see which one will collapse first. A ‘think positive attitude’ or a ‘true sense of fulfilment and confidence.’ When shit goes south, our leaves will be shaken down! And only our roots and our trunk will be left behind. But the beauty of this analogy is that we only have to water the roots—not the leaves. If we build up a strong character our personality will take care of itself and we won't even have to remind ourselves to “think positively”, we simply will.

That’s pretty much the introduction. Stephen is basically saying that in order to apply what he has to teach, we must have these lessons reach the very core of our character. And that requires time and patience.

Now, aside from being divided in seven habits, the book is divided in two parts. The first part is what he calls the private victories and the second the public victories. The first three habits (private victories) work on our character, strengthen who we are and reinforce the importance of our values. Then, the next three habits (public victories) work on those people around us—and our influence over them—our families, our coworkers, our friends, etc. And finally the last habit is kind of an overall reminder that improvement never stops. It’s not like you’ll read this book and you will immediately be a better person. No, it takes months, even years! And so, the seventh habit reminds us of that.

back to contents

P/PC Balance

OK, one last thing before we jump into the first habit. There is this thing he calls “P/PC Balance”. Which is, the balance of how productive something is (P), and its capability of remaining productive or its production capability (PC). This is important because all habits whether they are related to us or to our relationship with others, can be measured by this balance. I’m going to give you two simple examples of P/PC balance, a private one and a public one.

The private example is something like our body. If we work very [very] hard, we are very productive right? We may also get a promotion or the respect of our peers, cool! But if we eat shitty food because we tell ourselves we are too busy, or we don’t take vacation because we don't want to “waste time,” that production capability will soon drop. And if we keep doing that for a couple of decades, we will end up retiring to our graves sooner than expected! So one must find that P/PC balance right? (a very simple concept, but often overlooked).

On the public side, if we have someone in our lives who is always there for us and helps us when we need them, that relationship is very productive. And we can accomplish many things with their support, great! But if we are not there when they need us, or we don’t give something back ¹ , the relationship weakens and the trust is lost. Again, we must find that P/PC balance....Sounds easy, but if we really think about, it’s actually very difficult to be conscious of this balance. That's how you get financially successful people who are very unhealthy, or politicians rising to the top and then realizing they have no one they can trust, or CEOs who are despised by their employees, or (my personal fear) someone who knows a whole lot about something but nothing at all about everything else… so keep this P/PC balance in mind for the rest of this post because every lesson in this book has a P/PC side to it.