Habits Of Highly Effective People Philosophy Essay

Habits Of Highly Effective People Philosophy Essay Reading this inspiring book I have discovered that to achieve the highest level of self-discipline we need to have 7 habits. By saying habits it means these 7 behaviours pattern must form our everyday pattern of behaviour no exception. This book has opened my eyes on some fundamental facts or habits that shall make me a successful person and achieve high personal achievement. Be more confident on taking decisions and reflect on my strength and weaknesses. The book talks about habits that most effective have them and that made them successful. He said that we make habits and then habits make. We are what we repeatedly do. (Aristotle) Ashe is talking about leadership he mentioned that leadership precedes management. The difference between management and leadership is that management is formal authority while leadership is Moral Authority. Overall the book was interesting and I would like to comment on the main topics covered in the book. The Maturity Continuum is in three steps Dependence This is personal achievement Habits 1, 2, 3 Interdependence This is public achievement-Habits 4, 5, 6 Interdependence-Habit 7 In maturity continuum at dependence stage it is YOU, in independence stage it is I and in interdependence stage it is WE. These are the stages of perfection and optimization that a successful leader should achieve. Habit1. Be Proactive In habit 1 the author is suggesting that one shall be proactive and not reactive. He introduced 3 values in life: the experiential which comes through experiments, creative which come by our creation attitudinal which reflects our response to different situations. By being proactive I can read the surroundings and react upon things by facing the facts but with our own power and control we can response positively. I liked the way he talks about using our energy and power of influence in the right circle. He calls it the circle of influence and the circle of interest. In the circle of influence we have the power to change things but in the circle of interest we may not have the power of change, by concentrating on circle of interest we are just losing our power without we can make any changes; this is not the case if we concentrate on our circle of influence. In proactive approach we make mistakes, acknowledge and correct them. Being in our influence circle is all about proactive. Human Endowments Exercise human endowments imagination and conscience keep promise start small start with yourself never promise too big and deliver too low strong independent will is much inner power swim upstream Become transitional Stop transmitting negative actions of others Be true proactive , not reactive Influence others by my behaviour Make a space between Stimulant and Response so there is a gap for thinking Have principles We have the freedom of choice so we are responsible on our actions Paradigms I take responsibility of my action and choice I am capable of expanding my freedom and influence by proactive behaviour Having the above traits, the process Any reactive tendency I have , I change it to proactive I increase my circle of influence To become transition person so I benefit and others Exercise human endowments mentioned up Habit2. Begin With the End in Mind Focussing on goals is what we always need to do. Our personality has 3 different leadership qualities leadership management productivity Covey quotation in his book from Peter Drucker and Warren Bennis, management is doing things right, Leadership is doing the right things (1).This statement was so powerful and straight to the point which tells all about leadership in very simple and profound words. With the goal in mind we can design the start and focus on our goal and get the results we imagined. He suggests that we visualize things and focus on them so they interweave with our life experience. Things can go as we imagined because we put energy and focus on them and make things happen. I liked the author words mental creation precedes physical creation Effective people shape their own future Use whole brain (left and right) Have a personal mission statement, do incremental changes to the goal but dont change the core. Personal mission statement should answer the questions: What I am about? What do I leave behind? What characters Id like to emulate? What are the important I want? How I can use the right brain? And so on the list goes on. Benefits By doing this it encourages you to think deeply about your life, discover our inside thinking, expands perspective, visualise our goals desires and being the auto pilot to be on the right track. Refining By studying the lives of people we admire we can refine our mission statement Read poetry and inspiring literature Keep a list of trait s characters you like to develop Visualise what u want to be in 10, 20, 30 yrs. List the important things Testing mission values Timeless proven Represent the best inside me Inspire me the right direction Security and comfort to me approach and integrate the 4 basic human needs For example we should reflect upon Mahatma Ghandi mission of every day: I shall not fear any one on earth I shall fear only god I shall not bear ill toward any one I shall not submit to injustice from anyone I shall conquer untruth by truth And in resisting untruth, I shall put up with all suffering Process Create and apply daily living personal and organisational mission statement Envision the desired results and important values to guide activities. Anyone cannot do the right thing in one part of life while he is doing wrong things in any other parts, because life is one invisible whole (Ghandi) Summary of this part is: Choose a life centre Personal mission statement Habit3. Put First Things First So when you want to do something, plan, design and do it. By using calendar and notes list diaries we organise things and put priority on them .we cannot control time but we can manage our or organise ourselves to do tasks. The tasks can be classified in 3 different priorities: Urgent, Important, Not important. I Important and urgent II Important and not urgent III Urgent and not important IV Not urgent and not important We will make things bigger and bigger till it will dominate us and absorb our power by only focusing on Quadrant IQI in the table because it is urgent. The most important one is QII. Effective people are more interested in QII. They do not act in III and IV which are not important and stay in I and II but give more time to II and make I smaller Effective people do their time management by focusing on activities in QII because they are important and those activities have big impact in our life, so we must focus on them. Effective managers focus on results and not on methods so subordinates can choose the method and by this approach best results can be achieved because the subordinate have come up with their own visions or means to do it; it is their visions and not somebody elses. Treat a man as he is and he will remain as he is. Treat a man as he can and he will become as he can and should be (1) We only need time management to organise ourselves to do tasks. Time management can be looked at from three different angles -we believe that we need more timeà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦..but you have all the time is there -we believe that we can save timeà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦..time is equally given to all and we have to spend it -we believe that we can manage timeà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦. We can manage ourselves not time This simple comparison show how thinking has changed Old generation new generation Efficiency effectiveness Practices principles Management Leadership Schedule Relationship Urgent things First Things In control Illusion In Alignment I liked the way the author talked about building emotion bank account. It is a brilliant idea to gauge our account statement and see where the pluses and minuses, i.e. the deposit and withdrawal. He said that to build emotion account we basically have six major deposits, when we do negative things we withdraw from the account and when we do positive things we deposit the account. These deposits and withdrawal are our actions. Examples of deposits that we can make are by: 1. I see what is important for the other person and make it important to me also 2. I attend to small things that are seeing big things to the other to strengthen the relations 3. I keep promise, by not committing to fulfil; it is a big withdraw 4. I must clarify expectations. The author says this is the most damaging part of relations. Explain the role, term and goal. By clearing this upfront, it will save much of time and effort later. 5. I show personal humour and integrity. Be consistent when dealing with groups or individuals. The author says that you must remember how you treat one is how you treat the all others because all is the sum of ones 6. I should apologize when do mistake sincerely and it will be deposit. Priorities The most important things should come first before the less important Improve product/product capacity balance within my circle of influence I fulfil my mission by acting on important Goals in my key roles. Process Focus on important things and NO to unimportant things. Focus on QII activities and gradually Q1 activities will be covered or merged in QII, QIII and QIV will go away. Habit4. Think Win-Win Human relations based on one of these transactions: Win-Win both mutual benefit Win-Lose it is competition if I win you must lose and the relation is authoritarian Lose-Win the leadership is permissive Lose-lose when people try to make others lose even if they lose Win Win-Win or No Deal Win-Win both parties are winners or no deal and no loser. This is the beginning of relations and if no benefit then not a deal once in relation after some time the parties move to Win-Win if they have built the trust. Four dimension of Win-Win: Character: integrity, maturity, abundance mentality Relationships: demonstrate honesty, loyalty Believe in the best of others, clear expectation, accurate in time and honest in communications, treat others with respect and respond to their needs, focus on positive and use feedback for improvements. Agreements: desire results, guidelines, resources, accountability , consequences- achieve win-win or not Systems Processes Persist on looking for win-win results despite the past win-lose condition. Principles Effective long term relationship require mutual benefit I seek the benefit of others as well as my own I get better results by cooperating interdependently that by competing independently Win-Win relations should be focused on win-win with trust. Performance agreement will define the relation and it will be from vertical to horizontal where partnership or team work. the agreement set standards where people measure their performance: define the results, parameters Resources-human, financial, organisation support Accountability the time and standards Consequences what will happen Reward is very important system in Win-Win. If reward is used in win-lose, the system will have negative effect. If rewarded few in the Win-Win system, others are losers .Best is to set individual goals within the overall win goals so all can get rewarded. In competitive market win-win situation should be existed to make win-win to all participants but lack of confidence and trust is the main culprit. Win-Win is a third alternative, it is not my not your way but it is a better way. Habit5. First Understand, then be understood The beauty of this part lies in the art of listening. Which is very important element in gaining the hearts of the others and I believe it is on the top list of communications skills. We tend to prescribe things before listening deeply to the problem and diagnose what is needed. Be a good listener is a key to success. We listen not just for listening but to deeply understand the other party frame of reference and feelings. Listen with ears eyes and heart. Diagnose before prescribe things is not a professional approach. Understand what the customer needs is and give solutions. Amateur salesperson sells product BUT professional salesperson sales SOLUTIONS. Listen not by mouth. Listen to give answer. Listen with ears eyes heart In 75% of waking life, we learn reading, writing, speaking and listening.40% is listening alone. Every hour of understanding save 10/20/50 hours of problem solving arise from not understanding. Empathy listening is the key to the art of listening. Words we say represent 7%, nonverbal body language is 38%, the way we say words (emphasis) and sounds we make is 55% of the speech. So communication is seeing and feelings. It is mainly attitude and partly skills. The one who listens does most of the work not the one who speaks. Everyone is single and unique who will listen then? It is said that walls have ears. However some ears have walls. These words were very powerful on me and I have reflected upon them for a while. They are so true and profound and full of wisdom. Habit6. Synergise Simply it means all or total is greater than the sum of the parts or ones. Its value comes from valuing each other competencies and differences respect them and try to complement each other hence we get the complete picture which individually cannot be completed because o these differences and weaknesses. Cooperation builds trust and needs to interweave with each other. By having synergy mission it will be part of every body mind and heart and not individual concern when it is made by others. Ground rules for synergy try to adopt win-win way of thinking and mentality keep your heart, mind open to new alternatives and possibilities appreciate and respect value others opinions, views, and solutions The third alternative Negotiate and communicate till find a solution that we all feel good about It is not my way nor your way it sis the a better way We both can be right but we dont agree I must listen and if I dont agree I say: this is how I see it, not you are wrong Humility-I have my own experience though a life trials and errors. Take the others experience that took them a lifetime of understanding as a gift given to you for free. The main drive for synergetic approach is answering the question: Would you be willing to explore a solution which might be better than what we suggest? The principles of synergy are: Valuing differences of others and looking for a third alternative Doing work together takes time but produce better long term results Human problems can be solved by using habits 4, 5, 6, Habit7. Sharpen the Saw The principles of balance self-renewal You should work in a proactive way as mentioned before in the QII quadrant to refresh the dimension of ourselves physically, mentally, spiritually and socially. Live-Physical, basic wealth Lovesocial LearnMental Leave a legacyspiritual These when integrated they produce Fire Within Four dimensions of renewal Physical This is concerned about physical wellbeing by good eating and having good sleep and relaxation with exercise, stress management, sleep and rest, regular medical check-ups healthy habits and lifestyle. Spiritual Is inside us and it is a self-monitoring commitment to our values and it drives us by giving inspiration and uplifting to deal with human beings Create mission, review and refine Watch nature and reflect Study literature of great people Appreciate music and art Religious worship, yoga and meditation Mental dimension Keep the mind always fresh and sharp- with all the knowledge by reading writing planning and open mind to others to get new ideas. Read and read and read he says 12 books a year. Most professions have half-life of 4 years. Solve puzzles, play mental games, continue education, listen to music, be aware of TV it can be an open sewer into your home. These are the suggestions of the author and I completely agree with him. Social/emotional It is showing by our interactions with others and how we focus on them. Keep family relations, keep old friendship and find new friends, keep good relations and repair damage, value differences and look for synergy, take holiday and celebrate, take each family member in a date, write letters to family and friends. The four dimensions have to be refreshed and renewed together and if one is not looked after then the whole is affected. The process of synergising Apply Win-Win way of thinking-habit 4 Listen with empathy-habit 5 Seek synergic outcome- habit 6 Then use the synergy rules to find the third alternative Life changes continuously, keep core intact and deal with changes. Your centre is a source of security, guidance, wisdom and power. The real improvement is by renewal of all the four dimensions, physical, social. Set goals and work to achieve those dimensions renewal goals. The process is achieved by constantly developing and renewing of these personal dimensions (resources) to achieve better personal (product) and balance. Some quotes; Strength lies in differences, not in similarities The key of objectivity is to accept subjectivity I dont see the worlds as it is, I see is as I am The enemy of the Best is the good unknown. 7. Sharpen the Saw Be proactive and accepts risk to take new challenge Begin with the end in mind share team vision and mission First things are the things that are most important, they come first Think win-win increase group momentum and bring effective solutions to conflicts Seek understand first so u be understood and successfully resolve problems Synergy by engaging everybody can get better results and complement each other Renew and refresh your four personal dimensions continuously to protect them from burn-out Final Quotes: Become my leader although I a m your boss Production is golden egg, capability is goose

A Rhetorical Analysis “The Effects of Violence in Children’s Cartoons”

Rhetorical Analysis ENGL 102-07October 03, 2012 A Rhetorical Analysis of Editorial, â€Å"The Effects of Violence in Children’s Cartoons† Claim: That children's cartoons today are too violent and that these cartoons are greatly affecting their behaviors growing up. That violence is a learned behavior and therefore children that view violence can become violent themselves. The purpose of the argument is to raise the awareness about cartoon violence and come up with some solutions to lessen its negative impact on the children that are watching them.The primary target audiences of this argument are those that have the most direct contact with children, mainly their parents and teachers. Faced with the increasing popularity of animation, they feel that youngsters are developing a cartoon mentality, confusing fantasy and reality, and are imitating the actions they see on the screen. The author feels very strongly about the message he is trying to make and uses emotional, log ical, and ethical triggers throughout the article to make his point and bring the reader over to his idea. â€Å"this is a big dilemma because the media is promoting violence as an acceptable solution for children who may not know any better. †] (PATHOS) This statement seems to be an attempt to shock the audience to the idea that there is purposeful plot by the media to teach children that violence is an acceptable way to act. [â€Å"If a child is growing up in a home where Dad is beating up Mom all the time, the child is going to learn that hitting is an acceptable way to handle problems.This child is much more likely than other children to grow up to handle problems the same way and become a violent adult himself. The same can be said for cartoon violence. †] (PATHOS) The reader is given a comparison between witnessing domestic violence and cartoon violence. The author makes the argument that both will lead to a child becoming a violent adult. [â€Å"We cannot deny that children's violence has increase drastically in recent years. With things such as school shootings, bullying, daredevil stunts, peer to peer violence, and children killing parents we as a society need to be alarmed. ] (PATHOS) By using terms like â€Å"shooting† and â€Å"killing parents† the author is hoping to connect with the audience’s fear that cartoon violence could lead to drastic results. [â€Å"TV has even become known as â€Å"America's baby-sitter. † (Krieg). Meaning that parents are now using the television as a way of entertaining their children while they attempt to accomplish other things such as cooking and cleaning. †] (PATHOS) This statement tries to prompt a sense of guilt in the audience that they are are just sitting their kids in front of the television instead of being attentive parents. â€Å"On average and American child will watch 32 acts of violence per hour on TV. This number has skyrocketed from 20 years ago when it was just 12 acts per hour (Krieg). This being said a child will have watched anywhere from 8,000 to 100,000 acts of violence before they even finish elementary school (Weiss). †] (LOGOS) This seems a logical premise to help substantiate the authors point and uses a research example as evidence. [â€Å"It was found in one study that what a children watches on TV at age 8 will be one of the best predictors of how aggressive they will be as an adult.The children's TV viewing outweighed other factors such as child-rearing practices and socioeconomic factors (Grace). Grace also found that what a child watches after age 8 is not nearly as important as what they watch before age 8. †] (LOGOS) Again, this seems logical and uses a study to show evidence. [â€Å"We can start by creating a better rating system that gives parents more information about what the shows content is. This could be similar to the more recent movie ratings (Gardner).DIC is the largest supplier of chil dren's programming and they have come up with a 12- point code for the makers of these children's shows to decrease the violence (Weiss). †] (LOGOS) The author evokes some possible solutions to that may help resolve some of the problem with identifying violent cartoons. [â€Å"We have now seen all the facts on both sides of the argument. Is should be clear that we are faced with a very devastating problem. Our only hope is that we can do enough so that this next generation of children is not so violent.Maybe one day we can come to the point where children are so used to watching wholesome quality television that these violent shows will die out. †] (ETHOS) We do not know who the author is here. Is it a parent, teacher, or maybe a psychologist? The use â€Å"we† and â€Å"our only hope† seem to play on the conscience of the reader that we are all in this together, and together we can find a solution to cartoon violence. The author cites numerous reasons to prove and validate his point, such as the increase in violent acts per hour on television, and percentage of teachers that have reported increases in classroom violence.However, there is no evidence given that ties cartoon violence directly with this. It seems most of the article is the authors interpretation of the topic. He even goes as far as to say that those that disagree with his point are absurd. Is it possible that children become violent from what they see in cartoons? Maybe. But all cartoons are not the same. I think it is ignored that many cartoons also teach children important social and cultural lessons on such as honesty, kindness, and sharing.

Analysis of Anselm’s Ontological Argument Essay

This premise does not state that God’s strengths as this argument is to prove his existence, not whether or not God is all-powerful, all-knowing and all-good. The second premise means this greatest possible being is either an imaginary being that one has thought of or, a being that we not only is not only thought of but also exists. The third premise and its sub premises states because existing in reality is greater than existing in thought, then the God we have thought of exists in reality or there must be a greater, or more perfect, being that does exist and that being is God. This leads to the conclusion, if you accept the premises then you accept the existence of the greatest being possible, God. This concept of God’s existence is also led with the idea that God is a necessary being, a being that is not dependent of something greater in order to exist. If God relied on another being, like how a children rely on parents to conceive them, then this being called God is not God because it would be imperfect. Therefore, there must be another to call God that meets all the requirements for perfection. One of the first popular objections was created by Gaunilo of Marmoutiers. The premise and conclusion to Gaunilo’s argument is identical to Anselm’s argument except with the replacement of the word â€Å"God† with â€Å"the Lost island† and the word â€Å"being† with â€Å"island†. As simple as that, though Gaunilo’s argument is completely absurd, Gaunilo’s reductio ad absurdum also proves to be as deductively valid as Anselm’s argument. However, this â€Å"Lost Island† could in no way exist. The absurdity and validity of â€Å"the lost island† quickly brought up questions as to how Anselm’s Argument cannot be absurd. Anselm’s argument was not proven invalid until Immanuel Kant, a german philosopher during the 18th century, proposed an objection that would be the decisive blow to the Ontological argument (Immanuel Kant. Wiki). Kant’s objection is how existence is not a predicate (Mike, screen 25). A predicate is used to describe something the subject (this being God in Anselm’s Argument) is doing. In Aselm’s Argument, Anselm premise rely on that being conceived and existing in reality is something that describes God. This rationality does not follow because to exist or conceive does not describe the subject, it only tells us whether it exist or not. Much like how fictional characters do not exist, describing cartoon for example would tell us details of what this cartoon looks like, what its habits are and common antics it goes through, but not whether it exists or not. The question of existence must fall in a separate argument that does not define the character. As there are Arguments to prove God, there are debatable arguments to disprove the God. The First version of â€Å"The Argument from Evil† goes as follow: 1. If God were to exist, then that being would be all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-good. 2. If an all-PKG existed, then there would be no evil. . There is evil. [Conclusion] Hence, there is no God (Sober, 109) The first premise is the definition of what God would be if he were to exist. That is a being that has the power to do anything, had knowledge of everything throughout the span of time and is in all ways good. The second premise is created with the first premise in mind. To expand on the second premise i t states, if God were all-powerful he could stop any form of evil from happening, if he is all knowing then he has knowledge of when evil will occur and if he is all-good then God would stop all evil from happening. If god cannot stop all evil from happening then the definition of God must be incorrect. He then must not be powerful enough to stop all evil, and/or he doesn’t know when evil until it has already occurred and/or good is not all good in that God does not wish to stop all evils. The third premise is stating the fact that there is evil in the world. The conclusion derived since that there is evil, then is what may be defined as God must be lacking in one or two of his qualities and therefore God, by definition, does not exist at all. In order for God to be compatible with evil, God must only allow the evils that would, in turn, lead to a greater amount of good and must take the route that leads to the least amount of evil to gain the greatest amount of good. The soul building defense was created in mind that evil and God co-exist in our world. The defense is that without any evil in the world, our souls would not nurture, or, understand the concept of evil. This defense does not hold true because there has been many evils in the world that seem unacceptable, even though it may have been for the purpose of soul building. God, and all-good being, would then only allow the evils that are essential in soul-building. This would only mean that evil that man commits against man. The reason for this is because anything that happens in nature exceeds soul-building essentials. Another defense is God having given us free will, humans ultimately are the causes of this evil. That is true but the common objection to this is that human do more than enough evil to ourselves, it is going too far to have God throw tornados, volcanic eruptions, and hurricanes at us too. At what point do human have such control over nature. The last defense is that God simply works in mysterious ways. Who can explain why natural events take so many lives and injure many others or why some children have to go through great deals of suffering and live through it? It is God’s way and ultimately, no matter how incomprehensible the evil is, it is for the greater good. Certainly the question to God’s existence has been pondered upon by philosophers for over a very long period of time with no progress as whether God exists or not. The ontological argument created by Anselm withstood a great deal of criticism until it was disproved by Kant over 600 years after the fact.

Land Of Sunshine State Of Dreams By Gary Mormino - 1267 Words

Florida has always been a beautiful state aligned with unique natural wonders which has made it a location of wonder within the U.S. Even with Florida’s majestic natural appeal the state in its territorial years struggled with its public image as Indian attacks were common place in the region along with yellow fever and environmental phenomena such as hurricanes. Following in the end of the Seminole and the Civil war Florida began to search for a new identity and sense of prosperity in the face of massive changes to its economy and societal structure. With the advent of new technologies, the borders of Florida for the first time were opened to larger encompassing audience of visitors from all over the country who came to marvel at the natural landscape and relax in the temperate weather. Gary Mormino author of â€Å"Land of Sunshine State of Dreams† described in his book the factors and obstacles which challenged and ultimately propelled Florida to experience monumental growth in the 20th century. From the rapid use of automobiles to the creation of the magic Kingdom Florida has numerous factors to acknowledge when recognizing its recent success in America. While Gary Mormino book makes no effort to shy away from the less favorable aspects Florida history including the financial struggles of the early nineties, his book is clearly portraying an optimistic tone which echoes the glories of Florida’s past and future. Entering the 20th century Florida was amidst an identity crisis in