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Habit 4: Think Win-Win - Why Life Isn't a Zero-Sum Game

  The modern age of competition From an early age we are taught that life is a zero sum game. Top sets, medals, trophies, league tables and rankings. Someone is winning and someone is losing. It quickly starts to feel like your value depends on which side of that fence you find yourself on. We often carry this world view into adulthood. Still measuring ourselves against our peers. Constantly analysing who earns more, progresses faster, seems happier, calmer, more put together. Common paradigms of human interaction In his book, Covey describes basic ways we approach relationships, work, conflict, and life itself. Once you see them, you start spotting them everywhere. Win Lose This is the mindset of competition and comparison. I win if you lose. My success requires your failure. On the surface it looks confident. Underneath, it can sometimes be driven by insecurity and a fear of scarcity. Lose Win This one wears the mask of kindness but often hides resentment. I will accommodate. I w...
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Habit 3: Put First Things First

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  Stephen Covey opens his chapter on Habit 3 with a powerful two-part question: What one thing could you do in your personal life (that you are not doing now) that, if you did it consistently, would make a massive positive difference? What one thing could you do in your professional life ? So, let me start with a little confession… The Personal One Thing A Yoga Teacher Who Doesn’t Meditate… I am a qualified yoga teacher, trained in pranayama, mindfulness, the whole spiritual toolkit. You would assume I wake up every day, sit cross-legged on a cushion, breathe deeply, and connect with the universe before breakfast. I do not. On most nights, I stay up far too late playing video games with my friends grinding through a battle pass. This activity feels urgent (the season is ending!) but it is objectively not important . The result is that I am too tired to wake up ten minutes earlier. Covey would gently tell me this is a Quadrant 3 problem: urgency pretending to be importance...
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Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind

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  Picture this. You are at a funeral. The room is quiet. People are filing in, murmuring their respects. Family and friends are holding back tears. Then you walk up to the front, look into the casket, and see your own face staring back at you. Now ask yourself: What would you want your family to say about you? Your friends? Your colleagues? Your community? Stephen Covey uses this exact exercise to introduce the second habit of highly effective people: Begin with the end in mind . It sounds like a slogan from a project manager’s notebook, but it is really an invitation to ask a much deeper question: What kind of life do I want to be remembered for? This exercise helps you to define your roles and goals across different life domains. Which is important if we are striving to live in balance. What the Dying Can Teach Us About How to Live Bronnie Ware, a former palliative care nurse, spent years caring for people in the final weeks of their lives. In those final, honest moments, her pa...
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