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Wow – it sure has been a busy summer! Apologies for the delay in bringing you the second installment of my ’7 Habits Of Highly Effective People’ (by Stephen R. Covey) review!
Hopefully I will be able to post with a bit more regularity SOON!

Last time I explored the first section of the book, in which Covey starts to lay the groundwork for the rest of the book. This section was largely focused on the idea of the ‘Personality Ethic’ vs the ‘Character Ethic’, and the incredible importance of the latter when it comes to long-term personal growth and success.

The next section, prior to launching into the meat of the matter (the 7 Habits themselves), Covey focuses on the idea of ‘paradigms’, and the incredible power of the ‘paradigm shift’.

As he explains, a paradigm is essentially the way we see and interpret the world around us – our ‘model’, our ‘map’ that helps us make sense of everything. Our paradigms are increibly powerful – so powerful in fact that they literally dictate how we think and what we do.

There is an incredible analogy given in the book – the idea of being lost in Chicago holding a map for another city! It doesn’t matter how precise and high quality the map is; it doesn’t matter how positive we are or how much energy we throw into the situation – unless we get the correct map we are LOST!!
This is such a clear indication of why the personality ethic (based on improving behaviors, attitudes, strategies) cannot be more imortant that the character ethic (the fundamental core principles that dictate who you are as a person).

Of course, as Covey admits, once the right ‘map’ is in place, the strategies and techniques of the personality ethic can be hugely beneficial.

This topic of paradigms is SO important that I’m going to stop here and let you mull it over until next time.

In Part 3, before we get into the habits themselves, I want to talk about the idea of the “paradigm shift”.

Until then…

B.

Our paradigm’s are the source of our attitudes & behaviors. We cannot act with integrity outside of them. We cannot maintain wholeness if we walk & talk differently than we see. ~Stephen R. Covey