‘Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of thing which matter least.’ Goethe Habit 2 tells you what ‘first things‘ are, habit 3 has to do with the discipline and commitment to live by those things. Often people feel that there is a gap between what really matters most to them, such as their family, their purpose or vision, and the way that they live their daily lives. The reason for this often goes back to Habit 2 - we are not really connected to our deepest priorities.
Creating Structures in the Family
Enormous social and technological changes that have taken place over the past 50. Most businesses and professions are being reinvented and restructured to accommodate this new reality. But according to Covey the same kind of restructuring has not occurred in the family. A key starting point is to establishing weekly family time to plan, teach, solve problems and to have fun together. All of these activities help to build the emotional bank account. One of the reasons that the family is so critical today, is the shift in societal support and values over the past 50 years. Although the table below represents US experience it is not dissimilar from that in most western societies.
The most difficult part of establishing any new habit is making the commitment. Once this has been done the next step is to ‘put in the big rocks first’. To represent our existing time commitments Covey uses the analogy of a bucket already full to the brim. It is almost impossible to cram additional rocks into it - you have to empty it first, then put in the ‘big rocks’ first. This can be achieved by organising your week around roles and goals, rather than activities.
No comments:
Post a Comment