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My life can be split into two halves. The half before this book and the half after. It was a revelation when I read it 2 decades ago and helped me to truly see myself to the extent I felt reborn, and I had work to do. Work on myself and my character.
After reading the 7 Habits I was able to consciously engage in character development. It would help me to see where I was lacking and to help me plot a course forward. Before this book I thought everything was about ‘knowing’, after, my world became a rich tapestry of experience and moving from dependence, through independence into interdependence.
The habits are by no means perfect, but they bring light and self-awareness to where there was darkness and ignorance.
The 7 habits are divided into 2 subsections. Personal victories and public victories.
Private Victories:
- Habit 1 – Be Proactive
- Habit 2 – Begin with the End in Mind
- Habit 3 – First Things First.
Essentially this means, you are the creator, start at the beginning, get to work.
Public Victories:
- Habit 4 – Think Win/Win.
- Habit 5 – Seek First to Understand, Then be Understood.
- Habit 6 – Synergize
The last habit, focused on self-renewal is:
- Habit 7 : Sharpen the Saw.
The 7 Habits was my self-awareness moment. From that point I found Brian Tracy and began setting goals in all areas of my life, not just in education. I had previously completed a bachelors degree in Astronomy (the maths & physics of the universe) at University College London (UCL) but now I began working on my social skills, my fitness, my character growth, my interactions with the women in my life and purpose and mission.
I explored other self-help material and began volunteering for positions or creating them just to gain the experience. Eventually I came across an ebook that would become my bible. It was called MindOS written by Dr Paul Dobransky, a psychiatrist from Chicago. Dr Paul had codified the 4 main elements of someone’s psychology into a beautiful, elegant & simple but powerful model. MindOS is Einstein’s Relativity to 7 Habits’ Newtonian Mechanics.
The model consists of Intellect, Emotion & Decisions placed along 3 dimension axes, encompassed by a Personal Boundary topped off with Self-awareness.
