HABiT 5! :]

I have learned many lessons from The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Teens by Sean Covey. The most important lesson I've learned is to "Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood." This statement means that you should get to know a person, and his/her problems before you try to tell them how to solve the problem. Of course, all of us want to be understood by someone. The best way to show someone that you really care is to listen to them.

Like many people do, I often try to help to solve other peoples' problems, before I even understand what's really going on. As Covey says, you have two ears and one mouth. Why is that?? Well, its quite simple. We should listen more, and talk less. If you don't really understand a person, you can't help them. Also, it's not always our job to give advice. Sometimes, a person just needs someone to listen to them, and not tell them what they should do with THEIR life.

So, I hope that I can really utilize this habit, and become a better listener. But first, I have to learn how to shut my mouth... :]

NOW? OR lATER?

In The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Teens , the third of these seven habits is "Putting First Things First." In this chapter, the author Sean Covey divides the different ways people spend their time into four different quadrants. These four quadrants are the Procrastinator (1), the Prioritizer (2), the Yes-Man (3), and the Slacker (4).

Before reading this, I already knew that I am a procrastinator. But, until now, I never realized how bad it really was. I do what a lot of teens do...I slack off for most of the semester, and at the end, right before grades come out, stress myself out trying to make up for it. I have learned that this will only hurt me in the long run. I have decided to stop procrastinating, stop being lazy, and start putting my all into everything that I do

I'm definitely looking forward to seeing the positive change that this decision is going to present in my life..