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Daily Reflections for Highly Effective People: Living the 7 Habits of Highly Successful People Every Day

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Make the 7 habits a part of your life -- every day....

Stephen R. Covey has helped millions of readers attain professional success and personal fulfillment. With penetrating insight Dr. Covey reveals a pathway for living with fairness, integrity, honesty, and human dignity -- principles that give us the security to adapt to change and the wisdom and power to take advantage of the opportunities that change creates.

Now, as a succinct introduction to Dr. Covey's revolutionary thinking or as a reminder of key principles, Daily Reflections for Highly Effective People provides an inspirational recharge that will bring you closer to a holistic sense of personal effectiveness and purpose.

368 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 1994

76 people are currently reading
1162 people want to read

About the author

Stephen R. Covey

646 books6,320 followers
Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.

Stephen Richards Covey was an American educator, author, businessman, and speaker. His most popular book is The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. His other books include First Things First, Principle-Centered Leadership, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Families, The 8th Habit, and The Leader In Me: How Schools and Parents Around the World Are Inspiring Greatness, One Child at a Time. In 1996, Time magazine named him one of the 25 most influential people. He was a professor at the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business at Utah State University (USU) at the time of his death.

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5 stars
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142 (33%)
3 stars
96 (22%)
2 stars
25 (5%)
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15 (3%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 36 reviews
Profile Image for Keldon.
19 reviews1 follower
May 16, 2008
An interesting collection of quotes from the 7 Habits book. Intersting to take them one day at a time.
Profile Image for Daniel Godfrey.
146 reviews16 followers
January 7, 2024
Saw this one in Grandma's bookshelf. Mom had lent me her copy of 7 Habits to read in high school -- (she got me the wall calendar once too) -- and I like "a little bit each day" books, so that's why I got this one.

About the same time I got my own copy of the original, and for the first month or two read a couple of pages alongside these daily reflections; they lined up pretty well, although later in the year the reflections don't continue to follow the book's sequence.

This book is text only, which is all right for the most part. However, the original book also has helpful figures and tables. But then the Foreword is an excellent concise summary of the original and includes an important figure as well.

Because of the sequencing and the extra information, my advice is to read the original book before this one. This book probably serves better as daily refreshers or reminders of the original rather than as a standalone text... while working on Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw, I think.

I felt this book drew more attention to details. On reading the original, my biggest takeaway was "big picture," Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind. My biggest takeaway from this book was a smaller thing, an analogy the original employs about management and leadership: A team is compared to a group cutting trees in a jungle, and the leader is the one who climbs up to a high vantage point to make sure that the group is in the right jungle. (Said that way, it sounds simple. But I've found it can be very difficult in practice!)

Another fine detail was "We seek not to imitate the masters, rather we seek what they sought" (Jun 24).

I was also tickled when I started reading a book about Goethe and then the reflection for that same day (Nov 30) was a quote from him.

It's a nice book and I imagine the returns are even greater the more rigorously one follows the 7 Habits philosophy.
Profile Image for Thomas.
519 reviews2 followers
January 1, 2025
Although this book is meant to be read one page at a time over 1 year, I found it hard to follow this easy schedule. The items are taken from Stephen Covey's 7 Habits book. The reading is much better in its original context. I will want to read the 7 Habits book (latest edition) to get everything back in alignment (plus he added an Eigth habit as well in a separate book). I would tend to get off schedule, then try to catch up in chunks. Twice I tried to get back on track by waiting until the following year. Thus, it took me 3 years to finally get through this book. The individual quotations are good, but I emphasize the better flow in the original book.
4 reviews
February 8, 2025
Each habit offers a different perspective on improvement. In addition, it serves to educate on the whole of one’s health instead of a specific aspect of life. While reading, each habit was clearly demonstrated to be extremely beneficial in almost any social environment as well. The book is suited for family, business, or social improvement, but it shows how to achieve these improvements through internal success. It clearly shows that a person is not effective interdependently until they are fully independent. Truly inisightful.
34 reviews
December 5, 2024
Coming off two really wonderful and thoughtful daily readers over the last two years, this book strikes me as a surprisingly inept facsimile. There are random snippets or quotes from Covey’s famous book, with no context or exploration. Many of these are not even sufficient to prompt my daily journaling; and I found myself flipping through pages looking for a spark of inspiration. Sadly, not much to be found.

Whoever thought this was a daily reader is sorely mistaken.
Profile Image for Stanley Turner.
550 reviews8 followers
December 30, 2019
Excellent source of the most important points of Covey’s best book. I highlighted many sections in my copy of the 7 Habits. Being reminded of some of the most important points of the book keeps them fresh on the mind. Excellent...SLT
Profile Image for Victoria Tran.
46 reviews
March 20, 2020
Super helpful, I bought this off of a used book site called Thriftbooks.com (highly recommend by the way) and it was so enlightening. I want to read the teens version next but then the site doesn't have it available. Highly recommend for a nice self help book.
Profile Image for Nathan Beaumont.
17 reviews
September 28, 2021
Overall descent book, but the methodology the book uses is too heavy and complex to carry to everyday life, and will be difficult to remember, unless practice intently. If anyone is curious to read, I would recommend How to win and influence people, is a much better read.
1,724 reviews
July 17, 2019
My book- I read this a long time ago and noticed that I had highlighted my favourite sections. I will read it again
Profile Image for DaShannon.
1,296 reviews34 followers
October 15, 2019
A daily reading related to the Seven Habits for Highly Effective People, this book is a good companion read to follow up on the main book.
Profile Image for Lauren.
18 reviews
January 10, 2024
This book is only helpful with the actual book as a companion. It gives snippets from the book with page numbers as reference. It’s a good refresher if you’ve read the initial book.
Profile Image for Debbie.
272 reviews4 followers
February 18, 2025
A compact guide and refresher for everyday reading of the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People
Profile Image for Seemy.
901 reviews10 followers
December 28, 2023
I didn't enjoy this book much, it had some helpful reminders of the 7 habit principles, but really nowhere near as what the roginal book 7 habits of highly effective people does in terms of teaching the subject

maybe my 2 starts is harsh, but I think theres no need for this book, perhaps capitalising on the original for more money?...not a total loss ofcourse, some good examples around the principles themselves, but felt like a textbook vs great book..

i dunno - maybe i didnt read itas carefully as the orginal as it felt rehashed work...but the content is actually good, yet againm like i said..no need for it...mmm...what do others think?

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Seemy
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Profile Image for Lisa Wells.
412 reviews5 followers
February 4, 2013
its repetative, its slow, there are LOTS of examples. But it IS things that everyone should know. To become a therapist and successful at life at age 30, there happens to be a lot of concepts that I have already considered. it never hurts to review valuable information, and its always good to put htings together more cohesively. But I have to admit I do a LOT of skim reading. cause its painfully slow. But I do take a second to reflect and implement the ideas in my own story to work to improve and challenge myself.
Profile Image for Leslie.
385 reviews10 followers
October 25, 2011
As a self-help book, this is an unusual combination of left-and-right-brained. It isn't about efficiency and goal-setting; it's about principles and people. It's an interesting paradigm for effectiveness. But it is structured enough to be applicable, and he uses sticky examples and metaphors. Overall, a reasonable read, although at times a bit draggy; none of it is terribly original, but some of it is worth revisiting because the wisdom is so easy to forget.
Profile Image for Carol.
2 reviews
July 8, 2014
I have been reading this book for about 10 years. I open it up a few times a week and often find that something in it that was not especially meaningful previously can take on new significance. We change, and our connection to certain ideas changes too. The best take away for me...the importance of giving others psychological air.
Profile Image for Miranda.
4 reviews2 followers
November 7, 2008
I was required to go to the conference for a week for my old job. Zzzzzzzzzzzzz. Good ideas, but some of the stuff was not all that practical or realistic. Maybe I'm a pessimist and not very effective. LOL
280 reviews
August 2, 2012
I just love Dr. Covey. He died recently, and it leaves me very sad. I met him once about 35 years ago, and he was the happiest man I ever met. This is a wonderful book. It is meaningful to anyone and everyone. Required reading if you want peace and joy in your life.
Profile Image for Melissa.
114 reviews
March 1, 2008
I have read this before but this year I am starting it again, it's just one page a day for something to think about during the day. Very helpful and enlightening.
Profile Image for Ariana.
38 reviews
June 16, 2010
gabriel got me this one for christmas and i read a page each day. it gives me some thing to think about as i fall asleep.
Profile Image for Reem Rafei.
98 reviews157 followers
February 19, 2012
It's a great book to open it every day and read your daily thought , : )
Profile Image for Rose .
5 reviews
March 3, 2012
Good Resource for work ethics and teamwork in the work force.
Profile Image for Hope.
90 reviews4 followers
July 13, 2012
Great bedtime or quiet time book.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 36 reviews

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