Personal Growth Through '7 Habits': A Reflective Analysis Essay

This essay reflects on Stephen Covey's 'The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People,' focusing on the application of the principles to personal and professional development. Part 2A addresses the habit of 'Begin with the End in Mind,' highlighting the importance of understanding one's destination and avoiding distractions. It emphasizes self-awareness, imagination, and proactivity to achieve goals. Part 2B focuses on 'Put First Things First,' discussing prioritization and effective self-management. The essay explores the four-quadrant matrix of time management to balance professional goals and personal activities, ultimately shaping a more balanced and effective personality. The author aims to develop discipline, enhance willpower, and gain mental toughness to overcome setbacks, referencing the book and related academic articles to support the analysis.

Running Head: PART 2A/B
THE 7 HABITS OF HIGHLY EFFECTIVE PEOPLE: PART 2A/B

2PART 2A/B
PART 2A
The book “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" authored by Stephen Convey
discusses his personal experiences to suggest on how to become a better version of oneself.
This book is useful for every kind of people and I also found to be applicable in a current
issue of my life. As mentioned by the author, the habit "To begin with the End in the Mind"
states that a person needs to start with a transparent and practical understanding of their
destination. Presently, I am struggling to serve importance to one task at a time. I easily get
caught up with other activities and distractions when I have pending works to be completed.
In other words, I run out of time, get busy without being much effective. After gaining an in-
depth understanding of "To Begin with the End in Mind” habit, it is clear to me that I must be
macro focused on my purpose and stop distracting myself with any minutiae. According to
Rehman & Nasir (2015), the concept is based on first constructing an idea mentally and then
manifesting the creation physically. I need to incorporate self-awareness, imagination, and
proactivity to restrict myself from being conditioned to other people, my afflicted habits and
the society. By developing this habit, I would be more accountable for my own actions and
deploy self-awareness for how I can be in control of my own life. In this way, I will have a
clear understanding of where I am currently, the practicality of where I am going and then
map my actions more consciously to achieve my target.
PART 2B
(Please refer to the attached file for visual presentation)
The author of the book “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People”, Stephen Convey
produced blueprint characteristics of becoming a high performing individual at any given
area. Following one activity would contribute towards developing traits for my personal
growth and also achieve professional results effectively. Among the seven habits, the habit of
“Put first things first” is the second potential habit after “To begin with the End in the Mind".
By developing this habit it will help in the physical manifestation of the imagination that took
place in the first place. I lack this ability and if I develop “Put first things first” habit, I am
quite assured of gaining a positive result in my professional life. I would be more effective
with the actualization of my action that is going to take place on a day to day basis. By
prioritizing my activities I will be promoting effective self-management. However, Jensen,
Neck & Beaulieu (2016) mentioned, this demands unmatched discipline to do the most

3PART 2A/B
important things at first and disown any other distractions. Therefore by regularly practicing
this kind of discipline, I would be more capable of maintaining focus on y path and
professional ambition. I am likely to gain an ability for making decisions and act according to
the mapped actions. Further, my willpower would be enhanced and could employ it as a
powerful tool for creating an indomitable mental toughness to carry through setbacks and
failure. By learning about the four quadrant matrix of time management I can easily segregate
my professional goals and personal activities on the basis of urgent, not urgent, important and
not important. The habit will mostly deal with my time and personal life management
(Covey, Merrill & Merrill, 1995). I will learn to create more of a balanced professional life
where I can achieve my goals but without the cost of losing something that is more valuable.
It will positively shape my personality as I will be able to decide what my highest priorities
are and have the courage to reject other unimportant activities.

4PART 2A/B
References
Covey, S. R., Merrill, A. R., & Merrill, R. R. (1995). First things first. Simon and Schuster.
Jensen, J., Neck, C., & Beaulieu, R. (2016). The Self-action Leadership Model: A qualitative,
nomological expansion of self-leadership theory rooted in action research theory.
Rehman, S., & Nasir, N. (2015). The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People (Book
Review). Peshawar Journal of Psychology and Behavioral Sciences (PJPBS), 1(2),
211-230.