The key is in not spending time, but in investing it.
– Stephen R. Covey
To touch the soul of another human being is to walk on holy ground.
– Stephen R. Covey
Be a light, not a judge. Be a model, not a critic.
– Stephen R. Covey
But until a person can say deeply and honestly, “I am what I am today because of the choices I made yesterday,” that person cannot say, “I choose otherwise.”
– Stephen R. Covey
Live out of your imagination, not your history.
– Stephen R. Covey
Doing more things faster is no substitute for doing the right things.
– Stephen R. Covey
You can’t talk your way out of a problem you behaved your way into!
– Stephen R. Covey
If I really want to improve my situation, I can work on the one thing over which I have control – myself.
– Stephen R. Covey
It’s incredibly easy to get caught up in an activity trap, in the business of life, to work harder and harder at climbing the ladder of success only to discover it’s leaning against the wrong wall.
– Stephen R. Covey
Effective leadership is putting first things first. Effective management is discipline, carrying it out.
– Stephen R. Covey
A moment of choice is a moment of truth. It’s the testing point of our character and competence.
– Stephen R. Covey
Treat a man as he is and he will remain as he is. Treat a man as he can and should be and he will become as he can and should be.
– Stephen R. Covey
Courage is not the absence of fear but the awareness that something else is more important.
– Stephen R. Covey
Every human has four endowments: Self-awareness, conscience, independent will and creative imagination.
– Stephen R. Covey
These give us the ultimate human freedom… the power to choose, to respond, to change.
– Stephen R. Covey
The undisciplined are slaves to moods, appetites and passions.
– Stephen R. Covey
People with a scarcity mentality tend to see everything in terms of win-lose. There is only so much; and if someone else has it, that means there will be less for me. The more principle-centered we become, the more we develop an abundance mentality, the more we are genuinely happy for the successes, well-being, achievements, recognition, and good fortune of other people. We believe their success adds to, rather than detracts from, our lives.
– Stephen R. Covey
As long as you think the problem is out there, that very thought is the problem.
– Stephen R. Covey
Two people can see the same thing, disagree, and yet both be right. It’s not logical; it’s psychological.
– Stephen R. Covey
While we are free to choose our actions, we are not free to choose the consequences of our actions.
– Stephen R. Covey
We are not animals. We are not a product of what has happened to us in our past. We have the power of choice.
– Stephen R. Covey
Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply.
– Stephen R. Covey
Our character is basically a composite of our habits. Because they are consistent, often unconscious patterns, they constantly, daily, express our character.
– Stephen R. Covey
Remember, to learn and not to do is really not to learn. To know and not to do is really not to know.
– Stephen R. Covey
Spiritual intelligence represents our drive for meaning and connection with the infinite.
– Stephen R. Covey
The ability to subordinate an impulse to a value is the essence of the proactive person.
– Stephen R. Covey
Where you are headed is more important than how fast you are going, yet people are consumed with speed rather than direction.
– Stephen R. Covey
The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.
– Stephen R. Covey
In the last analysis, what we are communicates far more eloquently than anything we say or do.
– Stephen R. Covey
Motivation is a fire from within. If someone else tries to light that fire under you, chances are it will burn very briefly.
– Stephen R. Covey
There are three constants in life: Change, choice and principles.
– Stephen R. Covey
It’s not what happens to us, but our response to what happens to us that hurts us.
– Stephen R. Covey
Happiness can be defined, in part at least, as the fruit of the desire and ability to sacrifice what we want now for what we want eventually.
– Stephen R. Covey
While we are free to choose our actions, we are not free to choose the consequences of our actions.
– Stephen R. Covey
If we keep doing what we’re doing, we’re going to keep getting what we’re getting.
– Stephen R. Covey
Most of us spend too much time on what is urgent and not enough time on what is important. – Stephen R. Covey
The key is not to prioritize what’s on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.
– Stephen R. Covey
Live, love, laugh, leave a legacy.
– Stephen R. Covey
Trust is the glue of life. It’s the most essential ingredient in effective communication. It’s the foundational principle that holds all relationships.
– Stephen R. Covey
Self growth is tender; it’s holy ground. There’s no higher investment.
– Stephen R. Covey
I am personally convinced that one person can be a change catalyst, a transformer in any situation, any organization. Such an individual is yeast that can leaven an entire loaf. It requires vision, initiative, patience, respect, persistence, courage, and faith to be a transforming leader.
– Stephen R. Covey
The way we see the problem is the problem.
– Stephen R. Covey
Seek first to understand, then to be understood.
– Stephen R. Covey
Sow a thought, reap an action; sow an action, reap a habit; sow a habit, reap a character; sow a character, reap a destiny.
– Stephen R. Covey
Each of us guard a gate of change that can only be opened from the inside.
– Stephen R. Covey
We are the creative force of our life, and through our own decisions rather than our conditions, if we carefully learn to do certain things, we can accomplish those goals.
– Stephen R. Covey
You can buy a person’s hands but you can’t buy his heart. His heart is where his enthusiasm, his loyalty is.
– Stephen R. Covey
Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success; leadership determines whether the ladder is leaning against the right wall.
– Stephen R. Covey
We don’t invent our missions, we detect them.
– Stephen R. Covey
Perform anonymous service. Whenever we do good for others anonymously, our sense of intrinsic worth and self-respect increases.
– Stephen R. Covey
How you treat the one reveals how you regard the many, because everyone is ultimately a one.
– Stephen R. Covey
To change ourselves effectively, we first had to change our perceptions.
– Stephen R. Covey
If the ladder is not leaning against the right wall, every step we take just gets us to the wrong place faster.
– Stephen R. Covey
Admission of ignorance is often the first step in our education.
– Stephen R. Covey
To ignore the unexpected (even if it were possible) would be to live without opportunity, spontaneity, and the rich moments of which “life” is made.
– Stephen R. Covey
Quality of life depends on what happens in the space between stimulus and response.
– Stephen R. Covey
Without involvement, there is no commitment. Mark it down, asterisk it, circle it, underline it. No involvement, no commitment.
– Stephen R. Covey
How different our lives are when we really know what is deeply important to us, and keeping that picture in mind, we manage ourselves each day to be and to do what really matters most.
– Stephen R. Covey
Principles are universal – that is, they transcend culture and geography. They’re also timeless, they never change – principles such as fairness, kindness, respect, honesty, integrity, service, contribution. Different cultures may translate these principles into different practices and over
time may even totally obscure these principles through the wrongful use of freedom. Nevertheless, they are present. Like the law of gravity, they operate constantly.
– Stephen R. Covey
I am not a product of my circumstances. I am a product of my decisions.
– Stephen R. Covey
An empowered organization is one in which individuals have the knowledge, skill, desire, and opportunity to personally succeed in a way that leads to collective organizational success.
– Stephen R. Covey
Habit is the intersection of knowledge (what to do), skill (how to do), and desire (want to do).
– Stephen R. Covey
Most people struggle with life balance simply because they haven’t paid the price to decide what is really important to them.
– Stephen R. Covey
Words are like eggs dropped from great heights. You could no more call them back then ignore the mess they left when they fell.
– Stephen R. Covey
Begin with the end in mind.
– Stephen R. Covey
Happiness, like unhappiness, is a proactive choice.
– Stephen R. Covey