Stephen Covey

An interesting quote I saw last night:

"We are not human beings on a spiritual
journey, we are spiritual beings on a human journey."
I like that! That's Stephen on the left over there and me on the right! Two bald heads are better than one.

The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Covey's most famous book, was extremely successful and has sold over 15 million copies worldwide since first publication in 1989. The audio version was also the first non-fiction audio book in U.S. history to sell more than one million copies. In this book, Covey argues against what he calls "The Personality Ethic", something he sees as prevalent in many modern self-help books. He instead promotes what he labels "The Character Ethic", which is about aligning one’s values with so called "universal and timeless" principles. Covey is adamant about not confusing principles and values. Principles are external natural laws; values are internal and subjective. Covey proclaims values govern people’s behaviour but it's principles that ultimately determine the consequences. Covey presents his teachings in a series of habits - a progression from dependence, to independence, to interdependence.