Public Victory
Before you begin this section of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective
People Personal Workbook, read pages 195–214 in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.
People Personal Workbook, read pages 195–214 in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.
Inventory!
TAKE A LOOK BACK FOR A MOMENT and survey the terrain you’ve traveled so far. Remember that the seven Habits are based on a process called the inside-out approach. The first three habits concentrate on the “inside” portion of this process. So, in other words, you’ve been thinking only about yourself up until this point. And hasn’t it felt good? You’ve been building and improving your relationship with yourself—your own character.
Habits 1, 2, and 3 have increased your self-respect and self-discipline, and
have led you to a Private Victory of independence. Instead of feeling victimized and immobile, focusing on the weaknesses of other people and circumstances you believe are responsible for your current situation, you instead consciously choose to focus on your highest priorities and values— envisioning how you can best lead your life around those priorities and formulating a plan to execute on those priorities. Simply put, self-mastery is the foundation of good relationships with others. You can’t be successful with other people if you haven’t paid the price of success with yourself. Now, that’s a paradigm shift!
have led you to a Private Victory of independence. Instead of feeling victimized and immobile, focusing on the weaknesses of other people and circumstances you believe are responsible for your current situation, you instead consciously choose to focus on your highest priorities and values— envisioning how you can best lead your life around those priorities and formulating a plan to execute on those priorities. Simply put, self-mastery is the foundation of good relationships with others. You can’t be successful with other people if you haven’t paid the price of success with yourself. Now, that’s a paradigm shift!
After experiencing your Private Victory, Habits 4, 5, and 6 will lead you to a
Public Victory of interdependence, where you will be capable of building rich, enduring, highly productive relationships with other people. It’s now time to concentrate on the “out” of inside out.
Public Victory of interdependence, where you will be capable of building rich, enduring, highly productive relationships with other people. It’s now time to concentrate on the “out” of inside out.
EMOTIONAL BANK ACCOUNT®
Before you move on to Habits 4, 5, and 6, we’d like to introduce you to a powerful metaphor that effectively describes relationships. It’s called the Emotional Bank Account
The Emotional Bank Account is a metaphor that describes the amount of trust you build up in a relationship. Much like a financial bank account, deposits are made and withdrawals are taken from an Emotional Bank Account. When you do something positive for another person, it can be a major deposit for that person. Deposits build a reserve of goodwill and trust. On the other hand, when you do something negative toward another person, you make a withdrawal. When withdrawals exceed deposits, the account is overdrawn and the level of trust deteriorates. With your relationships, it’s vital that you make continual deposits in order to sustain a high level of trust.