What Matters Most

The Power of Living Your Values

By: Hyrum W. Smith

Narrated by: Hyrum W. Smith

Length: 4 hrs and 45 mins

Publisher's summary

In an age of unprecedented prosperity and opportunity, there are still many who feel that something is missing in their lives: "I've achieved success and am on the fast track in my career, I'm respected by my peers, I have a great family and all the toys and perks that I could possibly want. Why don't I feel a stronger sense of fulfillment, or any real happiness inside? Why does life feel so empty?" In What Matters Most, best-selling author and speaker Hyrum W. Smith outlines compelling reasons for this dissatisfaction.

©2000 Franklin Covey Co. (P)2000 Franklin Covey Co.

Critic reviews

"People who are happy recognize their success has come from who they are as much as from what they have accomplished. What Matters Most will give you the courage to be yourself and live a life of integrity." (John Gray, author of Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus)

Wonderful Supplement to TEN NATURAL LAWS

In TEN NATURAL LAWS, Hyrum Smith educates us on two key concepts for time and life management: The Productivity Pyramid and The Reality Model. These models rely, respectively, on two supporting concepts of human cognition: Governing Values and Beliefs. In WHAT MATTERS MOST, Smith enhances our understanding of these concepts with a simplified and more thoroughly integrated Productivity Pyramid that ties Smith's Governing Values concept with Stephen Covey's concepts of Mission Statement and Roles. As usual, Smith illustrates his points with tales from notables like Winston Churchill as well as his own personal anecdotes. As a practitioner of Ayn Rand's philosophy, Objectivism, I gained great value from both of Smith's books. I recommend reading TEN NATURAL LAWS first because I found the diagrams helpful. The reader can then augment his understanding of the FranklinCovey methods with WHAT MATTERS MOST.

good ideas, slow presentation

While I definitely like the ideas presented in this book, I found some of the stories that are included as examples to be way too long and mind numbing. With some of them I would spend my entire 30 min morning commute listenning to a point that an average person can get in 2-3 sentences. Also the music interjections are annoying - makes you feel like you are reading a drama about somebody succumbing to terminal illness and leaving 5 children orphant. The book about managing your life should have a more upbeat music, if any.

best book written by hyrum

This is definately the best book written by Hyrum Smith. apparently it is from the What matters most seminars. I have found this to be the most intensive and procedural of Franklin covey's seminars on tape/cd. this is the audio that walks you through the process of discovering your values , goals , roles, and mission the most thoroughly. it answers alot of the questions in the process that the listener might have and would have asked if they actually went to the seminar. I would definately recommend this book over "First things First".

Do you really

Most business or self-development books try to get their ideas into you. What Matters Most by Hyrum Smith is a book about the real you getting out.

It's a fabulos collection of thought provoking stories and questions to release not only your dreams but who you were created to be. The last third of the tapes takes you through Hyrum's (The creator of the Franklin Planning System) proven method for accomplishing your goals in life.

You can get most of the book's content by listening to the tapes. Just remember that it is designed to be a workbook about you. To get the most out of the journey, you will have to stop the tape and do the exercises (Ex: Write down your values).

You should also note that to really get the life change out of it, you will need to take you some time to reflect on the results of the self-discovery questions. I spent days working through the results to my questions. However, even if you just listen to the tapes, you will enjoy the speaker and find them applicable to daily life.

Easily one of the best experiences, never mind books that I have ever embraced. Highly Recomended.

In this program I learned what is important to me and I’m excited that this information will help me live a joyful and abundant

I carefully followed the steps of identifying my Roles, my governing values, and my personal mission statement. I feel I know myself better- accept my individuality and now I have practical steps in creating goals that will help me live a more joyful and abundant life. Thank you!

Just like Covey

Just like Covey. If you have read the 7 habits ignore this book. If you have not search for it and listen to it!

Boring. Not New

I'm surprised at the high ratings. Maybe if you've never listened to Stephen Covey, etc. then this material would seem new, but otherwise, this program doesn't say much and takes a long time to say it. Not only is there not much new stuff here, but the speaker is boring.

To me it seems he's just borrowed other people's ideas and expressed them in a slow, uninspiring way. Yuk.