Stephen Covey was an American writer and speaker who, through his work, helped millions of people achieve success through his motivating words. He had a degree in business administration, a master’s degree, and a doctorate in the same area.
Today he remains one of the most read authors in the world, and his book The 7 habits of highly effective peopleis one of the best-selling works in the world.
If you are interested in knowing more about the mentality and life philosophy of this author, you will be interested in this compilation of the best Stephen Covey quotes
1. Your most important work is always ahead of you, never behind you.
Always look forward, don’t stay in the past.
2. Proactivity is having the initiative and responsibility to make things happen.
Work to make everything happen the way you want, don’t leave it in other people’s hands.
3. The challenge is not to manage time, but to manage ourselves.
Knowing how to govern ourselves is the most difficult thing in life.
4. Many people suffer trying to achieve a balanced life because they have not paid the price of deciding what is really important to them.
We have to be very clear about what our priorities are.
5. When you show deep empathy towards others, your defensive energy goes down and is replaced by positive energy. This is how you can achieve greater creativity by solving problems.
Always bet on helping others.
6. You have to decide what your top priority is and have the courage to say ‘NO’ to other things.
Don’t feel committed to anything, saying no is an option.
7. Stop setting goals. Goals are pure fantasy unless you have a specific plan to achieve them.
You only have goals when you work to achieve them.
8. Just as we develop our physical muscles by overcoming opposition, such as in weightlifting, we develop our character muscles by overcoming challenges and adversity.
Never let obstacles paralyze you.
9. Trust is the glue of life. It is the most important ingredient in effective communication. It is the fundamental principle that sustains all relationships.
Do not lose confidence, because you will lose what is essential to move forward.
10. If I really want to improve the situation, I can work on the only thing I have control over: myself.
If you want to change the world, change yourself first.
11. Passion is born from the heart and manifests itself in the form of optimism, enthusiasm, emotional connection, determination. She fuels a relentless drive.
Maintain optimism and enthusiasm, this will help you in everything you set out to do.
12. We have more need for a vision, a goal, and a compass (a set of principles or instructions) and less need for a road map.
If you can see your goal, then you can achieve it.
13. Human beings are capable of making decisions based on their values.
If you have good values, your decisions will be the right ones.
14. Seek first to understand, then to be understood.
Don’t focus on wanting to be understood, rather seek to understand others.
15. Whatever is at the center of our lives will be our source of security, guidance, wisdom and power.
Work within yourself so you can have security, strength and understanding.
16. An empowered organization is one in which people have the knowledge, skill, desire and opportunity to achieve personal success in a way that leads to collective organizational success.
A successful company is one that focuses not on its well-being, but on that of all its staff.
17. It takes great strength of character to apologize quickly from the heart and not out of pity. A person must possess himself and have a deep sense of security in core values and principles to genuinely apologize.
Knowing how to apologize at the right time is great.
18. Leaders are not born or made, but they make themselves: leadership is the consequence of choices.
If you want to be a leader, work hard to become one.
19. Start small, make a promise and keep it. Then, make bigger promises and keep them.
The best way to get where you want is to commit and be consistent with what you want.
20. Strength lies in differences, not similarities.
Don’t try to look like others, have your own identity.
21. People forgive mistakes, because mistakes are usually things of the mind, of judgment.
Anyone can make a mistake, which is why it is easy to forgive.
22. People and organizations do not grow much without delegation and completion of work by staff, because they are limited to the capabilities of the boss and reflect both personal strengths and weaknesses.
Don’t depend on others, you have the ability to do what you set out to do.
23. Employers and entrepreneurs need people who can think for themselves, who can take the initiative and be the solution to problems.
Be part of the solution not of the problem.
24. Find your voice and inspire others to find theirs.
Be an example so that you can be an example for others.
25. Learning something, but not doing it is really not learning. Knowing something, but not doing it is really not knowing.
Put into practice everything you know.
26. Enthusiasm is deeply rooted in the ability to choose, not in circumstances. For those who are enthusiastic, the best way to predict the future is to create it.
Have enthusiasm in everything you do.
27. Leadership is a choice, not a position.
If you want to be a leader, earn it.
28. Listen with the intention of understanding, not with the intention of responding.
Knowing how to listen is a virtue that very few have.
29. If we want to make relatively minor changes in our lives, it may be enough to focus on our attitudes and behaviors.
If you master your behavior and attitude, you can have it all.
30. When one side benefits more than the other, that is a win-lose situation.
Find balance in your life.
31. The good is often the enemy of the best.
Focus on achieving the best.
32. Happiness (at least in part) can be defined as the fruit of desire and the ability to sacrifice what we want now for what we want finally.
Happiness is a matter of attitude.
33. The key is not to prioritize what is on your agenda, but to schedule your priorities.
If you have your priorities well defined, then you will achieve success.
34. To the winner it may seem like they have been successful for a while, but in the long run it will breed resentment and distrust.
Life is a mix between succeeding and sometimes failing.
35. We all have immeasurable power and capacity to reinvent our lives.
If something is not right, we have the ability to change it.
36. Errors of the heart, bad intentions, bad motives, and justification that, out of pride, try to cover up the error, are not easily forgiven.
There are things that cannot be forgiven so simply.
37. If we keep doing what we’re doing, we’ll keep getting what we’re getting.
If you want to succeed in life, change your behavior.
38. If we aspire to significant, balanced change, we have to work on our basic paradigms.
To change you have to work hard.
39. The proactive approach is about changing from the inside out: being different, and in this way causing a positive change in what is out there: I can be more resourceful, more diligent, more creative, more cooperative.
As our perspective on the world changes, our motivation also changes.
40. The power to choose the direction of our lives allows us to reinvent ourselves, change our future and strongly influence the rest of creation.
If you don’t know how to choose which destination to take, then it’s time to make changes in your life.
41. There are three constants in life: change, principles and choice.
To change you have to have principles to be able to choose the right path.
42. If one wants to arouse trust, one must be trustworthy.
What you give is what you will receive.
43. The more we use and develop our current skills, the more skills we are given and the greater our capacity.
If we learn to use our abilities, life regains another meaning.
44. Vision is applied imagination. All things are created twice: first, a mental creation; second, a physical creation.
If you believe it in your mind, it is very likely that it will come true.
45. The deepest desire of the human spirit is to be recognized.
We want others to recognize our value, but sometimes this doesn’t happen.
46. Moral authority comes from following universal and timeless principles such as honesty, integrity, treating people with respect.
If we are honest, upright and treat others with respect, that is what others will give us.
47. We see the world not as it is, but as we are.
Each person has a different point of view than ours and that is valid.
48. Those who make great contributions to life are those who, even fearing the knock at the door, respond to it.
Even when fear arises, we must move forward.
49. The proactive approach to a mistake is to instantly recognize it, correct it, and learn from it.
When we fail, we must learn from it and move on.
50. Those who teach what they learn are by far the best students.
We must teach others what we know, because then it is of no use.
51. The path to greatness is a process of sequential growth from the inside out.
If your growth is primarily internal, things are easier to see.
52. If conscience does not govern vision, discipline and passion, leadership does not last and neither do the institutions created by it.
By having discipline, passion for what we do and good knowledge, we can achieve any goal.
53. Listen with the intention of understanding, not with the intention of responding.
When you listen to someone, keep your full attention on it.
54. Leaders are not born or made, but rather they make themselves: leadership is the consequence of choices.
If you choose to be a good leader, then you must work hard at it.
55. One of the true tests of leadership is the ability to recognize a problem before it becomes an emergency.
If you have the ability to detect a problem and eradicate it quickly, then you are a natural leader.
56. You have to decide what your top priority is and have the courage to say no to other things.
When you know what you want, then don’t look at other things.
57. Personal growth is tender; It is holy land. There is no major investment.
Internal change does not happen from one moment to the next.
58. The way we see the problem is the problem.
It is more necessary to look for a solution instead of holding on to the problem and making it bigger.
59. If two people have the same opinion, one of them is unnecessary.
You have to be authentic in everything you do or say.
60. No matter what has happened to us, what is happening to us, or what may happen to us: there is a space between those things and our responses to them.
Despite the difficulties, there is always a path to follow.
61. Personal leadership is the process of maintaining one’s perspective and values and leading a life in accordance with them.
When we have control over our emotions, then success will come quickly.
62. While leadership decides what comes first, management puts it first day by day, moment by moment.
As we have control, everything will flow more quickly.
63. Technology will reinvent business, but human relationships will continue to be the key to success.
Part of success is having a personal relationship rather than a virtual one.
64. This is one of the greatest understandings in the field of human motivation: satisfied needs do not motivate.
You always have to look for reasons to continue.
65. Taking initiative does not mean being annoying, aggressive or pushy. What it means is recognizing our own responsibility to make things happen.
Taking the lead is not a matter of imposition, but of responsibility.
66. Developing stronger emotional intelligence is one of the biggest challenges facing parents and leaders at all levels of organizations.
Having better emotional control is a dream that we all want to achieve.
67. The path to greatness is a process of sequential growth from the inside out.
To be great we must change our interior.
68. After life itself, the power to choose is our greatest gift.
We are responsible for our own destiny.
69. Administration is discipline put into practice.
If we know how to direct our lives, then we are capable of reaching the goal.
70. Management is efficiency in climbing towards success. The leadership determines whether the ladder is leaning against the right wall.
