The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens

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Overview

Being a teenager is both wonderful and challenging. In The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens, author Sean Covey applies the timeless principles of the 7 Habits to teens and the tough issues and life-changing decisions they face. In an entertaining style, Covey provides a step-by-step guide to help teens improve self-image, build friendships, resist peer pressure, achieve their goals, get along with their parents, and much more. In addition, this book is stuffed with cartoons, clever ideas, great quotes, and incredible stories about real teens from all over the world. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens will engage teenagers unlike any other book.

An indispensable book for teens, as well as parents, grandparents, and any adult who influences young people, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens is destined to become the last word on surviving and thriving as a teen and beyond.

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Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Jack Canfield and Kimberly Kirberger coauthors of Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul A true gift for the teenage soul.

Jordan McLaughlin teenager If The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens doesn't help you, then you must have a perfect life already.

Kristi Yamaguchi U.S. Olympic figure skating gold medalist An intensive training program for youth to grow and become winners in the competition of life.

Stephen R. Covey author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People Unlike my book on the 7 Habits, this book by my son Sean speaks directly to teens in an entertaining and visually appealing style (and Sean, I never thought you listened to a word I said). As prejudiced as this may sound, this is a remarkable book, a must-read!

Dr. Laura C. Schlessinger author of Ten Stupid Things Women Do to Mess Up Their Lives This book has many positive, inspirational, and motivational strategies to help teenagers live up to their potential.

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Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780684856094
Publisher: Touchstone
Publication date: 10/9/1998
Edition description: Original
Pages: 288
Age range: 12 - 14 Years
Lexile: 870L (what's this?)
Product dimensions: 6.12 (w) x 9.12 (h) x 0.60 (d)

Meet the Author

Sean Covey, Executive Vice President of Innovation for FranklinCovey Corp., directed the development project that produced the The 4 Disciplines of Execution. He is author of the international bestseller The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens, which has sold more than 4 million copies and been translated into more than twenty languages. As director of FranklinCovey’s education practice, he travels the world teaching transformative strategy and execution to education leaders. An MBA from Harvard, he is the son of Dr. Stephen R. Covey, author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.

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Read an Excerpt

Get in the Habit

They make you or break you

Welcome! My name is Sean and I wrote this book, I don't know how you got it. Maybe your mom gave it to you to shape you up. Or maybe you bought it with your own money because the title caught your eye. Regardless of how it landed in your hands, I'm really glad it did. Now you just need to read it.

A lot of teens read books, but I wasn't one of them. (I did read several Cliffs Notes book summaries, however.) So if you're like me, you may be ready to shelve this book. But before you do that, hear me out. If you promise to read this book, I'll promise to make it an adventure. In fact, to keep it fun, I've stuffed it full of cartoons, clever ideas, great quotes, and incredible stories about real teens from all over the world...along with a few other surprises. So will you give it a try?

Okay? Okay!

Now, back to the book. This book is based on another book that my dad, Stephen R. Covey, wrote several years ago entitled The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Surprisingly, that book has become one of the bestselling books of all time. He owes a lot of the credit for its success to me and my brothers

and sisters, however. You see, we were his guinea pigs. He tried out all of his psycho experiments on us, and that's why my brothers and sisters have major emotional problems (just kidding, siblings). Luckily, I escaped uninjured.

So why did I write this book? I wrote it because life for teens is no longer a playground. It's a jungle out there. And if I've done my job right, this book can be like a compass to help you navigate through it. In addition, unlike my dad's book, which was written for old people (and can get really boring at times), this book was written especially for teens and is always interesting.

Although I'm a retired teenager, I remember what it was like to be one. I could have sworn I was riding an emotional roller coaster most of the time. Looking back, I'm actually amazed that I survived. Barely. I'll never forget the time in seventh grade when I first fell in love with a girl named Nicole. I told my friend Clar to tell her that I liked her (I was too scared to speak directly to girls so I used interpreters). Clar completed his mission and returned and reported.

"Hey, Sean, I told Nicole that you liked her."

"What'd she say!?" I giggled.

"She said, 'Ooohhh, Sean. He's fat!'"

Clar laughed. I was devastated. I felt like crawling into a hole and never coming out again. I vowed to hate girls for life. Luckily my hormones prevailed and I began liking girls again.

I suspect that some of the struggles that teens have shared with me are also familiar to you:

"There's too much to do and not enough time. I've got school, homework, job, friends, parties, and family on top of everything else. I'm totally stressed out. Help!"
"How can I feel good about myself when I don't match up? Everywhere I look I am reminded that someone else is smarter or prettier, or more popular I can't help but think, 'If I only had her hair, her clothes, her personality, her boyfriend, then I'd be happy.'"

"I feel as if my life is out of control."

"My family is a disaster. If I could only get my parents off my back I might be able to live my life. It seems they're constantly nagging, and I can't ever seem to satisfy them."

"I know I'm not living the way I should. I'm into everything — drugs, drinking, sex, you name it. But when I'm with my friends, I give in and just do what everyone else is doing."

"I've started another diet. I think it's my fifth one this year I really do want to change, but I just don't have the discipline to stick with it. Each time I start a new diet I have hope. But it's usually only a short time before I blow it. And then I feel awful."

"I'm not doing too well in school right now. If I don't get my grades up I'll never get into college."

"I'm moody and get depressed often and I don't know what to do about it."

These problems are real, and you can't turn off real life. So I won't try. Instead, I'll give you a set of tools to help you deal with real life. What are they? The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens or, said another way, the seven characteristics that happy and successful teens the world over have in common.

By now, you're probably wondering what these habits are so I might as well end the suspense. Here they are, followed by a brief explanation:

Habit 1: Be Proactive
Take responsibility for your life.

Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind

Define your mission and goals in life.

Habit 3: Put First Things First

Prioritize, and do the most important things first.

Habit 4: Think Win-Win

Have an everyone-can-win attitude.

Habit 5: Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood

Listen to people sincerely.

Habit 6: Synergize

Work together to achieve more.

Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw

Renew yourself regularly.

As the above diagram shows, the habits build upon each other. Habits 1, 2, and 3 deal with self-mastery. We call it the "private victory." Habits 4, 5, and 6 deal with relationships and teamwork. We call it the "public victory." You've got to get your personal act together before you can be a good team player. That's why the private victory comes before the public victory. The last habit, Habit 7, is the habit of renewal. It feeds all of the other six habits.

The habits seem rather simple, don't they? But just wait till you see how powerful they can be! One great way to understand what the 7 Habits are is to understand what they are not. So here are the opposites, or:

The 7 Habits of Highly Defective Teens

Habit 1: React

Blame all of your problems on your parents, your stupid teachers or professors, your lousy neighborhood, your boy- or girlfriend, the government, or something or somebody else. Be a victim. Take no responsibility for your life. Act like an animal. If you're hungry, eat. If someone yells at you, yell back. If you feel like doing something you know is wrong, just do it.

Habit 2: Begin with No End in Mind

Don't have a plan. Avoid goals at all costs. And never think about tomorrow. Why worry about the consequences of your actions? Live for the moment. Sleep around, get wasted, and party on, for tomorrow we die.

Habit 3: Put First Things LastarWhatever is most important in your life, don't do it until you have spent sufficient time watching reruns, talking endlessly on the phone, surfing the Net, and lounging around. Always put off your homework until tomorrow. Make sure that things that don't matter always come before things that do.

Habit 4: Think Win-Lose

See life as a vicious competition. Your classmate is out to get you, so you'd better get him or her first. Don't let anyone else succeed at anything because, remember, if they win, you lose. If it looks like you're going to lose, however, make sure you drag that sucker down with you.

Habit 5: Seek First to Talk, Then Pretend to Listen

You were born with a mouth, so use it. Make sure you talk a lot. Always express your side of the story first. Once you're sure everyone understands your views, then pretend to listen by nodding and saying "uh-huh." Or, if you really want their opinion, give it to them.

Habit 6: Don't Cooperate

Let's face it, other people are weird because they're different from you. So why try to get along with them? Teamwork is for the dogs. Since you always have the best ideas, you are better off doing everything by yourself. Be your own island.

Habit 7: Wear Yourself Out

Be so busy with life that you never take time to renew or improve yourself. Never study. Don't learn anything new. Avoid exercise like the plague. And, for heaven's sake, stay away from good books, nature, or anything else that may inspire you.

As you can see, the habits listed above are recipes for disaster. Yet many of us indulge in them...regularly (me included). And, given this, it's no wonder that life can really stink at times.

WHAT EXACTLY ARE HABITS?

Habits are things we do repeatedly. But most of the time we are hardly aware that we have them. They're on autopilot.

Some habits are good, such as:

Exercising regularly
Planning ahead
Showing respect for others

Some are bad, like:

Thinking negatively
Feeling inferior
Blaming others

And some don't really matter, including:

Taking showers at night
Eating yogurt with a fork
Reading magazines from back to front

Depending on what they are, our habits will either make us or break us. We become what we repeatedly do. As writer Samuel Smiles put it:

Sow a thought, and you reap an act;

Sow an act, and you reap a habit;

Sow a habit, and you reap a character;

Sow a character, and you reap a destiny.

Luckily, you are stronger than your habits. Therefore, you can change them. For example, try folding your arms. Now try folding them in the opposite way. How does this feel? Pretty strange, doesn't it? But if you folded them in the opposite way for thirty days in a row, it wouldn't feel so strange. You wouldn't even have to think about it. You'd get in the habit.

At any time you can look yourself in the mirror and say, "Hey, I don't like that about myself," and you can exchange a bad habit for a better one. It's not always easy, but it's always possible.

Not every idea in this book will work for you. But you don't have to be perfect to see results, either. Just living some of the habits some of the time can help you experience changes in your life you never thought possible.

The 7 Habits can help you:

Get control of your life
Improve your relationships with your friends
Make smarter decisions
Get along with your parents
Overcome addiction
Define your values and what matters most to you
Get more done in less time
Increase your self-confidence
Be happy
Find balance between school work, friends, and everything else

One final point. It's your book, so use it. Get out a pencil, pen, or highlighter and mark it up. Don't be afraid to underline, highlight, or circle your favorite ideas. Take notes in the margins. Scribble. Reread the stories that inspire you. Memorize the quotes that give you hope. Try doing the "baby steps" at the end of each chapter, which were designed to help you start living the habits immediately. You'll get a lot more out of the book if you do.

You may also want to call or visit some of the hotlines and Web sites I have listed at the back of the book for additional help or information.

If you're the kind of reader who likes to skip around looking for cartoons and other interesting tidbits, that's just fine. But at some point you ought to read the book from start to finish, because the 7 Habits are sequential. They all build on each other. Habit 1 comes before Habit 2 (and so on) for a reason.

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Interviews & Essays

November 1998

Words to Live By

"Although I'm a retired teenager, I remember how tough it was to be one, and it's even tougher now than it was then," author Sean Covey assures readers in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens. Covey, whose father wrote the hugely popular 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, hones in on the challenges teens face every day -- balancing the demands of school and job, dealing with peer pressure, getting along with parents, choosing a college -- and presents concrete ways to make real life work.

In his new book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens, Sean Covey suggest methods for teenagers to take control of their lives, with powerful habits for boosting self-confidence, improving relationships, and helping them find a sense of purpose. Here's what Covey has to say about the challenges of growing up.

An Interview with Sean Covey

Q: What made you write The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens?

A: As I talk with teens from all over, "stressed out" seems to capture what you're feeling. It's no wonder, because when you walk down school halls, or read magazines, or watch the news, or listen to the radio, and you hear about all of the violence, gangs, homelessness, disease, wars, drugs, scandals, fraud, rape, abuse, and other garbage that's going on, it's hard not to get discouraged and wonder what the future holds for you. I wrote this book because life for teenagers is no longer a playground -- it's a jungle. I hope this book can be a compass to help guide you on your path.

Q: What do you remember most from your own teenage years growing up as the son of Stephen R. Covey, who told our parents about the power of these seven habits?

A: Growing up in my home was at times a big pain because my dad always made me take responsibility for everything. If I said, "My new algebra teacher stinks. I'm never going to learn a thing," Dad would say, "Why don't you go to your teacher and give him some suggestions? Change teachers. Get a tutor if you have to. If you don't learn algebra, Sean, it's your own fault, not your teacher's." He never let me off the hook. He was always challenging me, making sure that I never blamed someone else for the way I acted. My dad's idea that you are responsible for your own life was hard medicine for me to swallow as a teenager. But with hindsight, I see the wisdom in what he was doing. He wanted me to learn that there are two types of people in this world: the proactive and the reactive -- those who take responsibility for their lives, and those who blame; those who make it happen, and those who get happened to. That's why Habit 1, Be Proactive, comes first. It's the key to all the other others.

Q: You also tell teens to "begin with the end in mind." The world is constantly changing. Why should we make decisions about tomorrow today?

A: By saying "begin with the end in mind," I'm not suggesting you should decide upon every little detail of your future, like choosing a career or deciding whom you'll marry. I'm simply talking about thinking beyond the moment and deciding what direction you want to go with your life so that each step you take is always in the right direction. The paths you choose today can shape you forever.

Q: Teens often do things they don't feel comfortable doing just because everyone else is. What is your advice for dealing with peer pressure?

A: Having the courage to say no when all your friends are saying yes is one of the most difficult things you'll ever have to do. Doing it, however, is one of the biggest charges you can ever make to your personal battery. I call this "won't power." If your personal battery charge is low, your self-confidence and self-respect will be low and you'll usually give in to the crowd in order to be accepted. If this is the case, begin today to charge yourself, little by little. Make a promise to yourself, and keep it.

Q: How do you reconcile the fact that teens are often criticized for being self-centered and yet you urge them to take time out for themselves?

A: Have you ever been too busy driving to take time to get gas? Habit 7, Sharpen the Saw, is all about keeping your personal saw sharp so that you can better deal with life. It means regularly renewing and strengthening your body, your heart, your mind, and your soul -- life's four key parts. You shouldn't feel guilty about taking time for yourself. Every so often, everyone needs to give themselves a big ol' bear hug and treat themselves to some TLC.

Courtesy of Fireside Books, a division of Simon & Schuster.

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The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens

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My mom made me read this book. But I was surprised!

Every teen should read it

Typical teenage stereotypers.

this book was great!!

Great Book

Positive redirection

7 habits?

Great Book

A Must for Teenagers

Helpful

AMAZING!

A reviewer

An Insparational Sensation That's Sweeping the Nation!

Motivation

Ehhhhhh

Good Book

Usual LDS Junk

Good for reference

he tells it like it is.

BEST BOOK EVER!

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