The Highly Effective People of Tomorrow by Austin

The Highly Effective People of Tomorrow by Austin - January 2023 Scholarship Essay

In my junior year, I took an elective class called the Foundations of Management. In this course, we were taught principles of management in businesses and organizations. The first aspect of it was managing ourselves as people. How could one expect to lead others when one can’t manage themselves? During this part of the class, we would read excerpts from the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey. From reading the excerpts, it intrigued me to read the whole book. So over the summer, I worked through the book in my free time. As I worked through the principles that Covey was teaching, I thought that many aspects of the book should be, but aren’t, taught in school. My Foundations of Management class lightly touched upon some of the principles, but after reading through the whole book, I thought that there should be a whole class set apart to the subject. In his book, Stephen Covey outlined principles that students today can use and will benefit from for the rest of their lives.
Covey offered timeless principles of how to lead ourselves in our own life before engaging with others. By changing our paradigm on self-improvement, it will expand our inner circle of influence. Covey ignores the quick “band-aid” fixes that the world offers and outlines seven habits that will produce profound personal growth. He breaks down the first three habits of personal change as a private victory, where a person can become truly independent. Independence is you knowing yourself, your values, your identity, and your direction. It is where you have a core within you that doesn’t change according to circumstances, and where others opinions don't define you. In a society where the young generation is constantly worried about self image and other’s opinion of it, it becomes crucial to teach the students of this generation how they can obtain their own independence and changeless core. The next three habits that are gone over by Covey will achieve public victory. This is where a person becomes interdependent. These habits are about relationships, cooperation, and communication with others. Covey emphasized that interdependence cannot be achieved unless one has a changeless base achieved through independence, which are the first three habits. Interdependence is key to building, maintaining, and even fixing relationships. In this technologically advanced world, we have become less socially and emotionally aware. Coupled with the lockdowns from the recent pandemic, we are even less able to cooperate with others. If we teach the principles of interdependence, students will be better able to think win/win, seek to understand first, and synergize with others in their life. Imagine what students of today can achieve when they follow these principles. The last habit is called “Sharpen the Saw”. This habit calls for renewal to enhance the greatest asset we have: ourselves. Sharpening the saw is renewing the physical, mental, social, and spiritual aspects of our life. This habit will allow us to recharge and continue to practice the other six habits. In the end, Covey emphasized that he himself struggles with the seven habits, as nothing can be perfect, but the struggle is worthwhile and will make life fulfilling.
This book has changed lives across all age spectrums, but what if students are able to learn these powerful lessons in personal growth at a young age? They will have the right map as they go into adulthood. In a technological age where instant gratification from social media becomes the source of our happiness, it becomes even more imperative to teach students to change their paradigms so they will experience true happiness that doesn’t stem from others' opinions. Stephen Covey laid out many small activities and exercises that can be used to help students shift their paradigm. If this was a required class, I believe that students would enjoy this class rather than just another “stupid required class that nobody needs”. It has changed my approach to everything, and I have truly started to see the results in my life. Everyday, I wake up with a sense of excitement as I look to make progress in different areas of my life. The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, among other things, has made me more productive, less stressed, and happier. I believe that teaching this as a required class will help make students of today highly effective human beings that will create a better future for tomorrow.