The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change

It is a wonderful feeling to come across a book where you feel that you really got your money's worth and that you really are learning something new and exciting that would greatly improve the way you think and live. Dr. Covey really got me thinking about so many things that I could really improve on and just what he said about not "getting in the thick of thin things" alone is worth every penny. I want to be a better husband and a better father to my children and strongly believe following the principals he identified will greatly help me achieve that.

This book provides excellent insights into dealing with others through
introspection. It touches on Victor Frankel and others who provide examples of how to turn adversity into assets. This book is not a traditional self help book, but a companion to guide the listener into ones self.

This is one of my top ten books of all time for lifelong contemplation.

Key themes of Proactivity; Setting and following priorities; Re-scripting according to principles; Win-Win; Listening to understand others; Synergy; and Renewal are fundamental, timeless and universal.

Dr. Covey's approach is unequalled in breadth and depth, while being entirely accessible to any human being. Everything he writes complements everything I've learned in life, while laboring to uproot any weeds that have grown in my internal garden. Having Dr. Covey read the material to me personally... it's the icing on the cake!

I read "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" when it first appeared decades ago; read it a second time five years later; and now, thanks to Audible, I've begun a profound study and contemplation of the material, that would have otherwise been too tedious to handle, given my other time commitments, as well as the fact that, since my work is about 90% in front of the computer, my eyes tire quickly before printed material in my non-work time.

I organize my listening in two ways: listening in the logical, step by step, chapter by chapter method on the one hand, imagining myself attending a 7 Habits seminar or class; and listening for hours at a time as I lie down to rest/relax/sleep on the other. The result is I end up hearing the material over and over, provoking thoughts and contemplations about where I am in life, where I want to go, and what I need to do to get there. I expect the process to last about six months. My goal from the reading: A complete paradigm re-adjustment for life.

This book has my highest recommendation for any person anywhere.

Steven Covey's message is as valid now as it was when the book was first published and listening to it on audiobook is great way to refresh those lessons we thought we wouldn't forget after reading it so long ago. My only critque of the audiobook is that Covey mispronouces words so often that it causes one to wonder why he would narrate his own book. I recommend the audiobook if you have read the book before and are willing to listen to his original pronunciation.

If you really want to change your life for the better, read this book. I would suggest not listening to this in the car, but in the quiet of your home and make notes as you do. You will truly change the way you go through life and the way you understand other people.

The material in the book is great and I highly recommend it. This audio version, however, is very difficult to listen to because the author speaks so slowly and pauses so often. I had the feeling that I could have listened to the unabridged version in half the time if read by another narrator. I found myself zoning while listening to the book, rewinding it so I could listen to it again, and by the time I got to the part I had missed, I was zoning again.

My 3 star rating is based on the audio itself, not the content. I highly recommend the book itself, and I may even buy the abridged version so I can refresh myself on the material.

Sadly this book is contrarian to a lot of what goes on in our society. Thus I constantly have to "try" to practice these principles. But the trying is worth it. I have used this book as a standard for turning around the cultures of two manufacturing plants after I was hired from the outside. Those turn-arounds were only accomplished because the principles in this book work and because, if patiently applied, they give a management team a common vocabularly for they way they treat each other and their associates. My only function was to act as catalyst and insist that these principles be practiced. After a couple of years, in both cases the stress levels were way down, the morale was way up, and the performance was beyond anything known before and certainly beyond expectation. In my current assisgnment we're saving over $3M per year (450 people) and the roots of that accomplishment are in this book. It's a book to listen to, to absorb, and to go back to over and over again. An annual tuneup by listening to this program, is typical of those who REALLY try to adopt the 7 Habits (and model them). It's tough to be a perfect practitioner. One can only read and try...

These are great principles to learn for life, but it could be delivered in a different more direct method that will not take 14 hours

If you are looking for a simple, linear formula to fast success, this is not your book. However, if you are convinced that sustainable success cannot be realized through a singularly direct approach, this book can provide the necessary foundation. The religious references do not suggest that God is the key to success. They are provided as examples for developing a solid internal foundation on the road to external success.

I would advise to buy the book...this version was hard to follow and not very good. I was disinterested and bored fast...although the paper version is excellent the audio version gets a low rating.