re-obsessed with the 7 habits of highly effective people

i’m currently re-obessed with the seven habits of highly effective people. i say re-obessed because this is my second round of obsession with sir steven covey’s masterpiece on how to live life as an optimal human. (side, bar, i know he’s not been knighted, however he should have been.).

i listened to this book about 4 years ago – when i finished i vowed to re-listen every 2 years of my life. i failed on that vow. however, i’m at it again now and it couldn’t be more needed.

like everyone, the past two years was a struggle. not a super intense struggle if i’m honest because i tend to enjoy a little crisis and chaos – keeps me feeling alive. but now, after close to 700 days of this pandemic (here in ontario where we’re on season 5) it’s a bit of a slow burn struggle. death by 1000 paper cuts kind of vibe.

i’ve / i’d lost interest in feeling alive, inspired or living life at a ten. i wasn’t depressed by any means (like really real depression, of which i have visited before) but i wasn’t happy / joyful. in fact, i was grumpy, irritable and tired. i felt like i was constantly apologizing for my moodiness to my loved ones and co-workers.

i’m in a ypo forum and was complaining about this general languishing and as we spoke about it i realized what i needed to was dust off my old audible credit and fix this shxt.

for those that haven’t read the book – the first of the 7 habits is about being proactive. i’ll never be able to paraphrase it’s justice – it’s so worth the read. but i will say it’s everything i wasn’t being. everything i forgot to be in life. mainly being fully accountable for my life. being in charge of not what happens to me but how i respond to it. knowing that there is such power and freedom in the space between stimulus and response. for the past while i let my stimulus dictate my response. which is just a garbage way to be and think. 

i was listening in the shower (where i get most of my book lisnin’ done) and i realized that if i could teach my son only one lesson for his life – it would be this first habit. naturally, i went to youtube and found the first habit (actually found a video playlist of all 7 broken out in parts – i’ll link below!). since my son is currently grounded from screen use – he was delighted to get some youtube time in – even if it meant watching this vintage talk from the man himself. he didn’t understand a lot of the bigger words being used – but it was actually better for him / us because it made me pause the video to explain each concept for him – which happens to also be a great point in the book – that if you teach the material you’ll learn it even more.

i’m also making my man read it along with me – so we can chat about all my ‘ah ha’ moments of how i’ve been a stupid baby about so much of my complaints (we’d chat about his however, he’s a near perfect man so, the few). doing books together makes us feel more connected and on the ‘same page’ (which is one of our family core values) plus gives us great convo topics that aren’t about work or kids! highly recco a spouse book.

k, here is the youtube playlist of all 7 habits. GO WATCH OR READ!!!!! swear, it’s all life changing!