Cullen Tonge
July 21, 2015
Summer Reading Essay
In the book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens, author Sean Covey uses his own experience and provides a somewhat simple approach to help teens build a positive self-image, positive relationships with friends and family, fight back and resist peer pressure, and take control of their lives by achieving their goals. Nearly every review of this book has been exploding with positivity leading it to be called “The Ultimate Teenage Success Guide.” The book also effectively engages the reader with interesting stories and ways to put the techniques into the reader’s life almost immediately. According to numerous readers, Sean Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens has shown them how to
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Self-image is how someone looks at themselves. Covey does not want teens to look at themselves negatively. He feels that if you look at yourself in a negative way, you can not be successful in life. Habit 1 strongly supports the idea of self-image by saying to be proactive. In order to do this, teens have to take over their own life and make their own decisions and to stop being reactive. If teens can realize that it is their life and not somebody else’s, then they will start looking at themselves differently. Covey also felt that setting and achieving your goals was a way to succeed in life because without goals, you would have no purpose in life. Habits 2 and 3 will help teens set and achieve their goals in life. Habit 2 states that you should begin with the end in mind. Sometimes, it is okay to go with the flow and live spontaneously; but in order to get somewhere, you have to think about the end result and then start on your path to get there. The third habit is to put first things first. What is the point of setting a goal if you aren’t going to make it one of your top priorities. Teens need to put their priorities first and then do the things that are not very important in their down time. There isn’t a habit that is specifically created for building up positive relationships, but there is a section of the book dedicated to it. Covey calls this section “The Relationship Bank Account.” This section gives a handful of good tips that will help you build up positive relationships with your friends and family. One of his tips was to listen rather than just hear. Covey feels that most people can hear, but few people actually listen and respond truthfully. Another tip given was to keep your promises. If you keep promises, the person will begin to trust you and will feel that they can count on
The Achievement Habit is a book all about taking control of your life. Bernard Roth is the author and he does a brilliant job of pointing out everyday issues about society. He points out in chapter two that Reasons Are Bullshit . Everyone uses reasons for things that we can control but we only use them when the things are not top priority. If everything we did has top priority then we would get it done and not need an excuse or reason for it. Roth says “ Many reasons are simply excuses to hide the fact that we are not willing to give something high enough priority in our lives.” ( p.41) People may argue that reasons are necessary , Roth argues that Reasons Are Bullshit. He thinks “ The problem with reasons is that they’re
Students encounter many complications during their school career. Some students are smart, but just don’t apply themselves, or have similar hardships that are going on in their lives. These can be fixed if one can find motivation and confidence. In the story “Zero,” Paul Logan coasts through high school and college. Logan doesn’t know the tools to succeed in school, which causes his grades to fall. In the story “The Jacket,” Gary Soto explains how the way one dresses can influences how they feel about themself. Which in this case he gets an ugly jacket; which causes him to be depressed and his grades to fall. Albeit Logan and Soto went through similar hardships, they both succeed with motivation and confidence.
Habit 3 is Put First Things First. Personally, I struggled with putting first things first as I was a procrastinator but, I have finally conquered myself and I am no longer in Quadrant 1! You see, there are different time quadrants which tell you if you are a 1. Procrastinator, 2. Prioritizer, 3. Yes-Man and 4. Slacker. You need to always stay on top of things and stay in quadrant 2 but it’s not easy, so you must work very hard for it to become a natural thing for you. Another way to becoming a prioritizer is to realize what your big rocks are and what your small rocks are. In other words, take notice of what is important first and those will be your big rocks to accomplish first. Only then will you have space for all the small rocks. Lastly, don’t let fear control you, control your fear. It’s okay to make mistakes if you’re trying to do the right thing. On page 121 in the 7 Habits book, Sean Covey says “Winning means rising each time you fail.” This is telling you that although you failed, if you are willing to rise and try again and pick up your broken pieces, that is winning. This is a hard habit to conquer but once you do it, it will change your
Although a multitude of teenagers does not receive beneficial advice to live their life by. One eminently important thing that gets overlooked day after day after day is teenagers abusing drugs. Achieving splendid grades is an enormous indicator on how a teen's future will be like. The final reason someone should give advice about is being respectful.
Covey, Stephen R. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Restoring the Character Ethic. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1989.
Snowman, J, McGowan, R, & Biehler, R. (2009). Psychology applied to teaching. New York: Houghton Mifflin.
Another struggle that teens face in their first year of high school is time management. Teens might struggle with this because they are probably doing a school sport or other things that distracts them from doing their homework or study for tests. Teens can really start to fail school because they are so tied up in other activities and not doing their school work. It is important for teens to limit how long they do things for fun and how long they do a sport for. One way for them to
Next, the action plan provides the tools you need to be successful. Lastly, they provide a learn more section to encourage you to broaden your knowledge. On occasion, they share some of their favorite readings and tips. This book is a staple; you have 71 simple habits, each with a separate description and technique, to support you in becoming a more mindful individual.
I want to talk about the thing that strives many teens have to be popular in schools.
The seven habits Covey summaries in the text are Be Productive, Begin with the End in Mind, Put First Things First, Think Win/Win, Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood, Synergize, and Sharpen the Saw. He describes how adopting these seven habits teach one to be their true selves, to be authentic, to live with self-respect, and to do things with honor. He emphasizes that it is necessary to identify the interdependence that individuals each required with the specific skills it takes to become highly effective. The authors’ intent is to empower persons to significantly enhance their routine competency through awareness by embedding these seven habits.
The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People is a book written by Stephen Covey. In the book he writes about seven habits that highly effective people have. The seven habits of highly effective people are: be proactive, begin with the end in mind, put first things first, think win-win, seek first to understand then to be understood, synergize, and sharpen the saw.
understand that being proactive is one of the most powerful ways to ensure my success. One of the keys to my success is the ability to think about my own thought process. This is called self awareness, and this is the reason humanity can make significant advances from generation to generation. Self awareness allows me to evaluate and learn from my own experiences and the experiences of others. This is the key to making and breaking my habits. Only when I take how I see myself into account will I be able to access my full personal potential and my ability to relate to others. Thanks to self awareness, I can examine my paradigms and determine if they are based in reality. The key to being self aware is to reject the social mirror that feeds
...sport all at once! Sports teach teens to get out of their comfort zone. It teaches them to make new friends. According to Debate.org Sports teaches students survival of the fittest.
A study performed in 1992, reported approximately 3,400,000 youth had failed to complete high school and were not enrolled in high school (Starr 1998). This statistic is based on the United States where job competition has greatly increased due to technology. Many of these student lacked the support and training necessary to succeed in today’s society. Currently in every high school across the nation, there is a person responsible for offering support and training to the youth of America. Available for all students is a guidance counselor. Counselors within the high school setting play an influential role in the forming of post high school goals through the planning of numerous activities.
The book “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens” by Sean Covey he provides 7 habits to help you improve. They are separated into two parts called private and public victories or Personal and relationship bank accounts.