Day: May 31, 2026

This article contains summarized notes that I have written for each CD in Tony Robbins’ “Personal Power” program (link) which I first listened to about 25 years ago.   Note that this article is not a substitute for listening to the actual program, but it is useful to periodically read it in order to help keep what was spoken about fresh in your mind.  

I have emphasized the text of the article in order to increase the speed and effectiveness of reviewing it.  I have put a spacer between the summarized information for each chapter, each of which is explained in detail on its own audio CD.  Each of the CDs in the program is between 30 minutes and 1 hour in length.  

 

Power is the ability to act.  

The four steps to success: 1. Know the outcome you want;   2. Take action;   3. Notice what is happening;   and 4. Modify your approach as necessary until you succeed.  

Forces which act like GRAVITY are counteracted when you apply your energy.  

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The motivating forces of human nature are to AVOID PAIN and SEEK PLEASURE.   YOU MUST USE PAIN AND PLEASURE TO YOUR ADVANTAGE by controlling your focus and changing subconscious associations— otherwise pain and pleasure will use you .  

At every moment, WHATEVER YOU FOCUS YOUR ATTENTION ON IS WHAT IS MOST REAL TO YOU.  Therefore, IF YOU WANT TO CHANGE YOUR BEHAVIOR, you must take control of what you FOCUS on.  

PROCRASTINATION IS THE SILENT KILLER.   You should link not taking action to PAIN.  

For every disciplined effort there is a multiple reward.  

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What controls your life are the “meanings” that you associate to situations.  

“Neuroassociations” are the pain or pleasure that you subconsciously associate or “link” with situations that ultimately control your behavior.  In order to change your life, you must reprogram your neuroassociations.  

YOUR DESTINY IN LIFE HAS FOUR PARTS: 1. Everything you THINK or DO is a cause set in motion (positive or negative);   2. Every one of your thoughts and actions is going to have an EFFECT or RESULT in your life;   3. Your results begin to “stack up” to take your life in a particular DIRECTION;   4. For every direction there is an ultimate DESTINATION or DESTINY.  

Your behavior will not change until you condition yourself to feel differently.  

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NEUROASSOCIATIVE CONDITIONING (NAC) is the science of controlling your behaviors through changing your subconscious associations with pain and pleasure.   The three fundamentals of NAC are 1. GETTING LEVERAGE— Recognizing a REASON to change;   2. INTERRUPTING THE ASSOCIATION— Such as creating an unexpected jolt of some kind for you to experience;   and 3. CONDITIONING A NEW EMPOWERING ASSOCIATION, AND REINFORCING IT WITH REPETITION.  

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Everything that humans do is simply an attempt to change the way they feel— to “change state.”  At every moment, what you do is powerfully shaped by the STATE you are in.  One of the most important things you can do to create power, joy, and happiness in your life is to learn to manage your states of mind, which can be accomplished using PHYSIOLOGY (Physical methods such as moving your body, breathing, and diet) as well as by CONTROLLING YOUR MENTAL FOCUS.  

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Using your MENTAL FOCUS, you can control WHAT you are picturing in your mind and HOW you are picturing it, which immediately changes your state.  

At every moment, HOW YOU EVALUATE THINGS (the questions that you subconsciously ask yourself) determines WHAT YOU ARE FOCUSING ON, which then determines your STATE— which then ultimately determines THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF YOUR LIFE.  Therefore the quality of your life is ultimately contingent upon THE QUALITY OF THE QUESTIONS THAT YOU ASK YOURSELF.  

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Your VALUES and BELIEFS are two forces that work together to consciously and unconsciously control your decisions that control the direction of your life.  

VALUES are emotional states that, based on life experience, you believe are the most important for you to experience (move toward) or avoid (move away from).  

Examples of “moving towards” values (pleasure values) are love, success, attraction, power, adventure, happiness, and security.   

Examples of “moving away from” values (what you want to avoid) and frustration, anger, depression, and physical pain.  

It is important to make the distinction between ENDS VALUES, which are emotions that drive all of our behaviors, and MEANS VALUES which are simply “vehicles” or “instruments” to achieve the ends values.  

“Means” values are for getting to a change state, for example a person wanting to have a family is a means to arrive at an emotion that they get out of it, or the STATE.  “Ends” values are the feelings and emotions you will have when getting to the change state.  

The key in life is to know what you are really after.  All decision making is nothing but VALUES CLARIFICATION— If you know what you value most, what you truly want most out of life, then you will find that you can make decisions much more effectively and rapidly.  

A BELIEF is a feeling of certainty about the meaning of something.  Your beliefs determine whether or not you feel like you are meeting your values— and they can either limit you or liberate you.  

Your BELIEFS have been subconsciously entrenched within you throughout your life through your experiences, and they can be either empowering to you or disempowering.  

There are two basic kinds of beliefs.  1. GLOBAL beliefs are generalizations: “Life is…”, “People are…”, “I am…”;  2. And CONDITIONAL beliefs are rules: “If this, then that.”  

Unhealthy LIMITING BELIEFS shut you down and immediately chain you to limitations.  

What you focus on is based on your VALUES.  

FOR ANY CIRCUMSTANCE, YOUR BRAIN FIRST EVALUATES THE EXPERIENCE.  First it looks at what VALUES are important in your life.  Then it looks at NEUROASSOCIATIONS.  For example: If someone values adventure, they would be drawn toward skydiving; or if someone values security, they would not be as drawn to skydiving.  

If you know someone’s values, you can predict the overall direction of their life.   If you would swap values in a person, it would completely change their personality and life.  

If you take conscious control to change and optimize your VALUES and BELIEFS, you change your DESTINY, because you change what you are focusing on daily— creating a whole new set of CAUSES and EFFECTS.  

Before improving your values, you need to find out what they currently are.   If you have a list of your values, you know what you are focused on.  

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You can use NEUROASSOCIATIVE CONDITIONING (NAC) to help to change your BELIEFS.  

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You must set goals to move toward, and the PURPOSE of your goals is much more important than the planned outcome.   Setting a goal acknowledges to your conscious and subconscious mind that where you are is not where you want to be.   Whatever you focus on is what is real.   You can use pressure and dissatisfaction to your advantage.  

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People are not lazy, they just have impotent goals.   You must intensely visualize your goals to the point that you feel as if you have already achieved them.  

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Your consistent EMOTIONS shape your character and destiny.   If you are feeling any EMOTION on a consistent basis, it is the result of an internal RITUAL.  Your RITUALS consist of your habitual ways of looking at the world, thinking to yourself, and moving your body.  RITUALS are subconsciously fired off by stimulus from your environment (ANCHORS.)  

Procrastination is nothing but a ritual.  The easiest ways to deal with procrastinating is to “put it off” until later (“procrastinate the procrastinating”), and to condition yourself to know that not following through is more painful than following through.  

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Whenever you are in an intense emotional state, anything that consistently happens around you while you’re in the peak of that state gets associated with it.  This process is called ANCHORING.  

An example is hearing a particular song reminding you of a person or place from the past, where it is because you were hearing the song when you were in a peak emotional state.  

The behavior of Pavlov’s dogs drooling when they hear a bell that is rung before being given food is another example of anchoring.  

You can consciously ENTRENCH POSITIVE ANCHORS and COLLAPSE NEGATIVE ONES.  

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If you do not have enough money, it is likely because you have not conditioned yourself for wealth.  People often have seven “wealth wounds” which are unhealthy assumptions about money that cause people to cripple themselves financially.  

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Sometimes people subconsciously associate pleasure with not having financial abundance, or they are frightened by the thought of having more money because it is “the unknown”— and thus they sabotage their ability to make money.   Their finances will not improve until they change their core beliefs about money and subconsciously link pain to not having it, as well as learning how to counter the “seven wealth wounds.”  

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Fear is an emotional state where your brain is activated to protect yourself in anticipation of pain.   People are often afraid of failure because they set themselves up with impossible rules for success, and they can eliminate such fear by realizing that nobody outside of themselves can label themselves as a failure.   Fear can also be eliminated by reprogramming neuroassociations associated with it.  

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Self-sabotage is stopping yourself from following through to avoid pain of some sort.   Such fear-based behavior can be reprogrammed by “interrupting the pattern” using “the erasure technique.”  

Self-confidence can be enhanced through physiology (PHYSICAL factors), controlling your mental focus, and improving your core beliefs which create positive momentum of the success cycle.  

The SUCCESS CYCLE is an important visualization of a circular chain of processes which RESULTS IN THE POSITIVE OR NEGATIVE QUALITY OF YOUR LIFE, as follows:  

BELIEFS (influence —>) POTENTIAL (influencing —>) ACTIONS (influencing —>) RESULTS [often including EXPERIENCES] (which then loop around to influence BELIEFS again —>)  

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Two things you can do immediately to improve your physical health are to understand the power of breathing and to eat water-rich foods such as fruits and vegetables.  

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Common challenges to relationships include people thinking of it as “the solution to their problems” and only taking from the relationship rather than giving, lack of spontaneity in the relationship, negative anchors being established in the relationship, and partners failing to meet each other’s needs.  

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The key to problem solving: 1. Control your focus;   2. Expect an answer;   3. Know what you want, try something, and notice if it is working;   4. Then change your approach if necessary.  

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Common life paths of people are “The Dabbler”, “The Stresser”, and “The Master”.   It is “The Master” who finds true fulfillment in life by practicing the fundamentals that are taught in this program every day, and continuing to keep going when they hit a plateau.   Remember the key ideas: 1. Decide what you really want;   2. Develop a plan;   3. Take action;   4. Be flexible.  

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You can develop habits that stick with you by understanding how to ESTABLISH POSITIVE SUBCONSCIOUS ANCHORS, TAKE ADVANTAGE OF EXISTING POSITIVE ANCHORS and ELIMINATING NEGATIVE ONES— by reprogramming your anchors using the SWISH pattern method.  

Something you can do immediately to improve your physical and mental health is to understand the power of BREATHING.  

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There are four “CLASSES” of experiences:  

A Class 1 experience is something that: Feels good, is good for you, is good for others, and serves the greater good.   <— When these criteria exist, it is a “peak life experience.”  

A Class 2 experience is something that: Does NOT feel good, but is good for you, is good for others, and serves the greater good.   <— These are experiences that you often want to avoid but ultimately give you joy because they cause you to grow as a human being, and as you master them you become more fulfilled.  

A secret to being fulfilled is learning how to convert Class 2 experiences into Class 1 experiences.  

A Class 3 experience is something that: Feels good, is NOT good for you, is NOT good for others, and does NOT serve the greater good.   <— These are non-productive experiences that are indulged in too much, for example drinking too much alcohol, etc.  These experiences provide people with immediate pleasure but in the long term give them pain.  

A Class 4 experience is something that: Does NOT feel good, is NOT good for you, is NOT good for others, and does NOT serve the greater good.   <— Starting smoking cigarettes for the first time is an example.  People often engage in these experiences out of peer pressure, conditioning, or old belief systems.  

All people have SIX BASIC NEEDS which can initially seem to be paradoxical, i.e. being in conflict with each other.   Serious problems can arise if you choose destructive “vehicles” to try to satisfy those needs.   But also you can choose to establish new patterns of fulfilling those needs that will move you rapidly toward life mastery.  

1. Certainty / Comfort  

2. Uncertainty / Variety   <— #1 and #2 must be balanced with each other.  

3. Significance  

4. Connection / Love   <— #3 and #4 must be balanced with each other.  

5. Growth  

6. Contribution   <— #5 and #6 must be balanced with each other. 

This article contains summarized notes that I have written for each chapter of Stephen Covey’s book “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.”

Note that this article is not a substitute for reading the actual book, but it is useful to periodically read it in order to help keep what was spoken about fresh in your mind.  

I have emphasized the text in order to help increase the speed and effectiveness of reviewing it.  

 

Part One: PARADIGMS AND PRINCIPLES 

Chapter: INSIDE OUT 

In order to have “PRIMARY GREATNESS,” you must accurately understand the way things ACTUALLY ARE with you, and the ways things SHOULD BE with you. 

The HEALTHY PRINCIPLES of FAIRNESS, INTEGRITY and HONESTY, HUMAN DIGNITY, SERVICE, QUALITY and EXCELLENCE, POTENTIAL, GROWTH, PATIENCE, NURTURANCE, and ENCOURAGEMENT are universal to everyone, and they are key to being a good person. 

THE INSIDE-OUT APPROACH is to have PRIVATE victories precede PUBLIC victories, where making and keeping promises to ourselves precedes making promises to others. 

The principle of FAIRNESS:  Equality, respect, and justice in relationships, ensuring that all parties involved are treated justly and have equal opportunities. 

The principles of INTEGRITY and HONESTY:  Integrity involves having strong moral principles and consistently adhering to them, while honesty is the act of being truthful and free from deceit. 

The principle of HUMAN DIGNITY:  Every person has worth and deserves respect and ethical treatment. 

The principle of SERVICE:  Emphasizes the importance of serving and helping others with a focus on their needs, where the service is genuine and not driven by ulterior motives. 

The principles of QUALITY and EXCELLENCE:  Quality refers to the ability of a product or service to meet established standards and customer expectations, emphasizing consistency and reliability.  Excellence is a broader concept that focuses on achieving outstanding performance and continuous improvement, driven by motivation rather than just meeting external standards. 

The principle of POTENTIAL:  Considering and nurturing the best possible version of someone, rather than judging them based on their current circumstances or actions. 

The principle of GROWTH:  We should treat others as we wish to be treated. 

The principle of PATIENCE:  Tolerating delays, discomfort, or frustration without losing composure. 

The principle of NURTURANCE:  Caring for and supporting others, helping them grow and develop emotionally and socially. 

The principle of ENCOURAGEMENT:  Building one another up through positive words and actions, creating a supportive environment. 

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Chapter: THE SEVEN HABITS— AN OVERVIEW 

The Seven Habits are HABITS OF EFFECTIVENESS based on HEALTHY PRINCIPLES.  Effective HABITS of INTERNALIZED PRINCIPLES and PATTERNS OF BEHAVIOR are the intersection of KNOWLEDGE, SKILL, and DESIRE. 

KNOWLEDGE is “WHAT to do and why,” SKILL is “HOW to do it,” and DESIRE is “the MOTIVATION and want to do it.”  You must work in all three dimensions in order to create an effective habit. 

An important concept is a principle called the “P/PC Balance,” which is a paradigm of effectiveness based on a natural law of finding a crucial BALANCE OF FOCUS between WHAT is Produced (Product) and the CAPACITY to Produce (Production Capacity).  An example would be the fable of the goose that laid golden eggs, with the eggs being the product, and the goose being the production capacity.  True effectiveness is a function of a BALANCE of maintaining BOTH aspects. 

The “P/PC” concept applies EVERYWHERE, such as with PHYSICAL ASSETS like a lawnmower that requires upkeep, PERSONAL FINANCIAL ASSETS such as utilizing loans and earning power, and PERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS requiring give and take such as in marriages.  In ORGANIZATIONS it applies to PHYSICAL ASSETS such as making sure to maintain the equipment, and HUMAN ASSETS such as always treating your employees as well as you want them to treat your best customers. 

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Part Two: PRIVATE VICTORY 

Chapter: HABIT 1— BE PROACTIVE — Principles of Personal VISION  (Properly recognize what you actually have power to do and not do.) 

REACTIVE people are overly affected by circumstances in their environment, whereas PROACTIVE people take responsibility of their own lives and don’t blame circumstances, conditions, or conditioning for their behavior, and they also take initiative by recognizing their responsibility to make things happen. 

Some of the things within your CIRCLE OF CONCERN you HAVE control over, and the rest you DO NOT have control over.  You should visualize a circle within your Circle of Concern called the “Circle of INFLUENCE” which represents the aspects that you do have control over.  By determining which of the two circles is the focus of most of your time and energy, you can discover much about the degree of your PROACTIVITY.  Your focus is only effective if it is in your CIRCLE OF INFLUENCE. 

The problems you face fall into one of three areas: 1. DIRECT CONTROL (problems involving your OWN behavior);  2. INDIRECT CONTROL (problems involving OTHER PEOPLE’S behaviors);  or 3. NO CONTROL (problems you can do nothing about, such as your past or situational realities).  A PROACTIVE approach puts the first step in the solution to all three kinds of problems within your present CIRCLE OF INFLUENCE. 

At the heart of your CIRCLE OF INFLUENCE is your ability to make and keep COMMITMENTS and PROMISES to yourself and others, which is the essence of developing the basic HABITS OF EFFECTIVENESS. 

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Chapter: HABIT 2— BEGIN WITH THE END IN MIND — Principles of Personal LEADERSHIP  (Properly PLAN what you must do.) 

All things are created TWICE.  There’s the MENTAL or first creation, and the PHYSICAL or second creation.  HABIT 2 is based on principles of PERSONAL LEADERSHIP, which is the FIRST creation.  Leadership is not MANAGEMENT which is the SECOND creation that will be discussed in the next chapter.  LEADERSHIP is about making sure to be “doing the RIGHT things,” whereas MANAGEMENT is “doing those things properly.” 

The most fundamental aspect of HABIT 2 is to “begin with the end in mind” with all aspects of your life. 

Whatever is at the center of your life will be the source of your SECURITY, GUIDANCE, WISDOM, and POWER, which are INTERDEPENDENT with each other.  You can have much conscious control over your aspects of GUIDANCE and POWER. 

SECURITY is your sense of worth or self-esteem. 

GUIDANCE is your source of direction in life, your STANDARDS and PRINCIPLES. 

WISDOM is your perspective on life. 

POWER is your facility of the capacity to act, the STRENGTH and POTENCY to accomplish something, including your capacity to overcome embedded bad habits and to cultivate higher, more effective ones. 

When those four factors are present together, harmonized and enlivened by each other, they create a great force of a noble personality, a balanced character, a beautifully integrated individual. 

PRINCIPLES are fundamental truths that are universal to everyone and are tightly interwoven through the fabric of life. 

The ideal is to create ONE CLEAR CENTER from which you consistently derive a high degree of SECURITY, GUIDANCE, WISDOM, and POWER, empowering your proactivity and giving congruency and harmony to every part of your life (a center based on HEALTHY PRINCIPLES.) 

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Chapter: HABIT 3— PUT FIRST THINGS FIRST — Principles of Personal MANAGEMENT  (Effectively IMPLEMENT your plans.) 

HABIT 3 is the personal fruit, THE PRACTICAL FULFILLMENT OF HABITS 1 AND 2 THROUGH PRACTICING EFFECTIVE SELF-MANAGEMENT. 

HABIT 1 says “YOU’RE the programmer,” HABIT 2 says “WRITE the program,” and HABIT 3 says “Run the program, live the program.”  LIVING IT is primarily a function of your INDEPENDENT WILL, SELF-DISCIPLINE, INTEGRITY, and COMMITMENT. 

THE SUCCESSFUL PERSON HAS THE HABIT OF DOING THINGS THAT FAILURES DON’T LIKE TO DO.  They don’t necessarily like doing them either, but their disliking of it is subordinated to the strength of their purpose. 

PEOPLE CAN SPEND THEIR TIME FOUR DIFFERENT WAYS — QUADRANT I: “Urgent and Important” activities (The Zone of DEMAND);  QUADRANT II: “Not Urgent but Important” activities (The Zone of FULFILLMENT);  QUADRANT III: “Seemingly ‘urgent’, but not actually important” activities (The SHALLOW, SUPERFICIAL zone, the zone of DELUSION);  and QUADRANT IV: “Not Urgent and Not Important” activities (The Zone of DISTRACTION). 

QUADRANT I is dealing with tasks that are genuinely a CRISIS or PROBLEM that require your immediate attention.  Aspects of someone living too much of their life in QUADRANT I include: Being constantly stressed and burned out; Always needing to be putting out fires through crisis management. 

QUADRANT II (Things that are not urgent but are important — The Zone of FULFILLMENT) is the most ideal focus of your personal management.  It is dealing with things like building relationships, performing long-range planning and preparation, exercising your body, and performing preventative maintenance— all of the things that you need to do, but can be neglected because they aren’t “urgent.”  Aspects of living your life primarily in QUADRANT II include: Having VISION and PERSPECTIVE; Having BALANCE; Having DISCIPLINE; Having CONTROL; Thus needing to deal with crisis much less frequently. 

Aspects of someone living too much of their life in QUADRANT III (“Seemingly ‘urgent’, but not actually important”— The SHALLOW, SUPERFICIAL zone, the zone of DELUSION) include: Having a short-term focus; Often finding themself needing to do crisis management; Being obsessed with manipulating their reputation through behaving with a chameleon character; Seeing goals and plans as worthless; Feeling victimized; Feeling out of control; Having shallow or broken friendships. 

Aspects of someone living their life too much in QUADRANT IV (“NOT urgent and NOT important” — The Zone of DISTRACTION) include: Being totally irresponsible; Being fired from jobs; Being dependent on others or institutions for the basics in their life. 

Most people say that their main fault is LACK OF DISCIPLINE, but more likely it is their LACK OF PRIORITIES implanted in their hearts and minds.  If your priorities grow out of a PRINCIPLE center, a personal mission which is deeply planted in your heart and mind, you will then see QUADRANT II (“Not urgent but important” activities— the zone of FULFILLMENT) as a natural and exciting place to invest your time.  If you don’t have a bigger “yes” burning inside, it will be almost impossible to say “no” to Quadrant III or to the pleasure of escape to Quadrant IV. 

You accomplish all that you do through DELEGATION— either to your time or to other people.  When you delegate to your TIME, you should think “efficiency,” and when you delegate to OTHER PEOPLE, you should think “effectiveness.” 

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Part Three: PUBLIC VICTORY 

Chapter: PARADIGMS OF INTERDEPENDENCE  (Treat others well with genuinely healthy motivations.) 

Before moving into the area of “Public Victory,” it is important to realize that effective INTERdependence can only be built on a foundation of true INdependence.  A PRIVATE VICTORY must precede a PUBLIC VICTORY. 

You have to like yourself before you can like others.  Self-respect comes from dominion over your SELF, from true independence— which is the focus of Habits 1, 2, and 3. 

The most important ingredient that we put into any relationship is not what we say or do, but who we are. 

The EMOTIONAL BANK ACCOUNT is a metaphor that describes the amount of trust that has been built into a relationship, it is the feeling of safeness you have with another person.  You make deposits into an emotional bank account with somebody through your courtesy, kindness, honesty, and keeping your commitments.  This builds a subconscious reserve of trust which you likely will be able to call upon if you need it. 

THE SIX MAJOR DEPOSITS— There are six major deposits that build your emotional bank account with others: 1. Understanding the individual; 2. Attending to the little things; 3. Keeping commitments; 4. Clarifying expectations; 5. Showing personal integrity; and 6. Apologizing sincerely when you make a withdrawal. 

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Chapter: HABIT 4— THINK WIN / WIN — Principles of INTERPERSONAL LEADERSHIP  (It is healthy to seek mutual benefit in your interactions with others.) 

“WIN / WIN” is not a technique, it is a total philosophy of human interaction— It is one of six potential paradigms of interactions which are “WIN / WIN”, “WIN / LOSE”, “LOSE / WIN”, “LOSE / LOSE”, “WIN”, and “WIN / WIN OR NO DEAL.” 

WIN / WIN is a frame of mind that constantly seeks MUTUAL BENEFIT in human interactions.   There are three character traits essential to the WIN / WIN Paradigm: INTEGRITY, MATURITY, and ABUNDANCE MENTALITY. 

WIN / LOSE is a paradigm of COMPETITION— such as managers being put in a race to win a trip to Bermuda. 

LOSE / WIN is a paradigm of somebody having the mentality of a doormat. 

LOSE / LOSE is what happens when two WIN / LOSE people interact— both will lose. 

WIN is a mentality where it only matters to a person that they get what they want. 

WIN / WIN OR NO DEAL is a paradigm where if both parties can’t find a solution that would benefit them both, they agree to disagree agreeably and don’t make a deal.

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Chapter: HABIT 5— SEEK FIRST TO UNDERSTAND, THEN TO BE UNDERSTOOD — Principles of Empathic Communication  (Genuinely listen to and consider what others have to say.) 

The single most important principle in the field of interpersonal relations is “Seek first to understand, then to be understood.” 

There are five levels of LISTENING listed by the amount of effectiveness: IGNORING, PRETENDING TO LISTEN, SELECTIVE LISTENING, ATTENTIVE LISTENING, and EMPATHIC LISTENING.  EMPATHIC LISTENING is listening to UNDERSTAND rather than only to reply. 

A key way to subconsciously show the listener that you are EMPATHETICALLY LISTENING to them is by REPHRASING THE CONTENT AND REFLECTING THE FEELING.

MATURITY means a balance between COURAGE and CONSIDERATION— Seeking to UNDERSTAND requires CONSIDERATION— seeking to BE UNDERSTOOD requires COURAGE.  WIN / WIN requires a high degree of both. 

When you present your ideas clearly, specifically, visually, and most important, contextually— in the context of deep understanding of your audience’s paradigms and concerns— you significantly increase the credibility of your ideas. 

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Part Four: RENEWAL 

Chapter: HABIT 7— SHARPEN THE SAW — Principles of Balanced Renewal  (Take time to develop the PRODUCTION CAPACITY in all areas of your life.) 

Covey explains an example of a woodcutter working for hours trying to cut down a tree, being exhausted doing it, but not stopping to sharpen his saw for a few minutes because it would distract him from his work, even though sharpening the saw would dramatically speed up his job. 

Habit 7 is similar to the woodcutter sharpening his saw— it surrounds all of the other habits on the Seven Habits paradigm because it is the habit that makes them possible. 

An important concept is a principle called the “P/PC Balance,” which is a paradigm of effectiveness based on a natural law of finding a crucial BALANCE OF FOCUS between WHAT is Produced (Product) and the CAPACITY to Produce (Production Capacity).  An example would be the fable of the goose that laid golden eggs, with the eggs being the product, and the goose being the production capacity.  True effectiveness is a function of a BALANCE of maintaining BOTH aspects. 

Habit 7 is personal P/C— Preserving and enhancing the greatest asset you have— you.  It is RENEWING the four dimensions of your nature— PHYSICAL, SPIRITUAL, MENTAL, and SOCIAL / EMOTIONAL.  The renewal is optimally effective when all four are dealt with in a wise and balanced way, where neglecting one area negatively impacts the rest. 

The PHYSICAL dimension involves effectively taking care your physical body— eating the right kind of food, getting sufficient rest and relaxation, and exercising on a regular basis. 

RENEWAL is the principle and the process that empowers your to move on an upward spiral of growth and change, of continuous improvement. 

To keep progressing, you must LEARN, COMMIT, and DO— and then LEARN, COMMIT, and DO again. 

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Chapter: INSIDE-OUT AGAIN  (Real change can only come from breaking out of your previous habits and paradigms.) 

Real change comes from the inside out— it only comes from striking the root— the fabric of your thought, your fundamental, essential paradigms which give definition to your character and create the lens through which you see the world. 

Building a character of total integrity and living a life of love and service that creates such unity is possible if IT BEGINS WITH YOUR DESIRE TO CENTER YOUR LIFE ON CORRECT PRINCIPLES, AND TO BREAK OUT OF THE PARADIGMS CREATED BY OTHER CENTERS AND COMFORT ZONES OF UNWORTHY HABITS. 

IF YOU START WITH YOUR DAILY PRIVATE VICTORIES AND WORK FROM THE INSIDE OUT, THE RESULTS WILL SURELY COME.  As you plant the seed and patiently weed and nourish it, you begin to feel the excitement of real growth and eventually taste the fruits of having a congruent and effective life. 

By centering your life on CORRECT PRINCIPLES and creating a balanced focus between DOING and INCREASING YOUR ABILITY TO DO, you become empowered in the task of creating an effective, useful, and peaceful life.