Stephen Covey

You can retire from a job but dont ever retire from making extremely meaningful contributions in life.

Instead, I have an abundance mentality: When people are genuinely happy at the successes of others, the pie gets larger.

The key is not to prioritize what's on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.

Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success leadership determines whether the ladder is leaning against the right wall.

If you want to have a more pleasant,cooperative teenager, be a more understanding, emphatic, consistent, loving parent.

The more people rationalize cheating the more it becomes a culture of dishonesty. And that can become a vicious downward cycle. Because suddenly if everyone else is cheating you feel a need to cheat too.

Nothing is as fast as the speed of trust.

Everyone must be proactive and do all they can to help themselves to stay employed.

It's a fact that more people watch television and get their information that way than read books. I find new technology and new ways of communication very exciting and would like to do more in this field.

Synergy is what happens when one plus one equals ten or a hundred or even a thousand! It's the profound result when two or more respectful human beings determine to go beyond their preconceived ideas to meet a great challenge.

The key to motivation is motive. It's the why. It's the deeper yes! burning inside that makes it easier to say no to the less important.

Principles are the territory. Values are maps.

Begin with the end in mind.

If you're proactive, you don't have to wait for circumstances or other people to create perspective expanding experiences. You can consciously create your own.

Stop setting goals. Goals are pure fantasy unless you have a specific plan to achieve them.

Almost every significant breakthrough is the result of a courageous break with traditional ways of thinking.

Synergy is the highest activity of life; it creates new untapped alternatives; it values and exploits the mental, emotional, and psychological differences between people.

Principles are guidelines for human conduct that are proven to have enduring, permanent value.

Synergy is better than my way or your way. It's our way.

The true identity theft is not financial. It's not in cyberspace. It's spiritual. It's been taken.

The challenge of work life balance is without question one of the most significant struggles faced by modern man.

It's not what happens to us, but our response to what happens to us that hurts us.

Leadership is a choice, not a position.

A mission statement is not something you write overnight... But fundamentally, your mission statement becomes your constitution, the solid expression of your vision and values. It becomes the criterion by which you measure everything else in your life.

Studies have identified a significant 'skills gap' between what students are currently being taught and the skills employers are seeking in today's global economy. Our children must be better prepared than they are now to meet the future challenges of our ever-changing world.

Moral authority comes from following universal and timeless principles like honesty, integrity, treating people with respect.

Live your life by a compass, not a clock.

Just as we develop our physical muscles through overcoming opposition-- such as lifting weights--we develop our character muscles by overcoming challenges and adversity.

Listen with the intent to understand, not the intent to reply.

Most negotiators are trying to get their way.

Some habits of ineffectiveness are rooted in our social conditioning toward quick-fix, short-term thinking.

The main thing is to keep the main thing a main thing.

If you carefully consider what you want to be said of you in the funeral experience, you will find your definition of success.

The deepest desire of the human spirit is to be acknowledged.

A cardinal principle of Total Quality escapes too many managers: you cannot continuously improve interdependent systems and processes until you progressively perfect interdependent, interpersonal relationships.

The key to success is dedication to life-long learning.

The more people rationalize cheating, the more it becomes a culture of dishonesty. And that can become a vicious, downward cycle. Because suddenly, if everyone else is cheating, you feel a need to cheat, too.

Whatever is at the center of our life will be the source of our security, guidance, wisdom, and power.

There's strong data that, within companies, the No. 1 reason for ethical violations is the pressure to meet expectations, sometimes unrealistic expectations.

Time management is a misnomer, the challenge is to manage ourselves.

Unless you're continually improving your skills, you're quickly becoming irrelevant.

It takes a great deal of character strength to apologize quickly out of one's heart rather than out of pity. A person must possess himself and have a deep sense of security in fundamental principles and values in order to genuinely apologize.

Personal leadership is the process of keeping your vision and values before you and aligning your life to be congruent with them.

What is common sense isn't common practice.

All things are created twice; first mentally; then physically. The key to creativity is to begin with the end in mind, with a vision and a blue print of the desired result.

When we value correct principles, we have truth - a knowledge of things as they are.

The bottom line is, when people are crystal clear about the most important priorities of the organization and team they work with and prioritized their work around those top priorities, not only are they many times more productive, they discover they have the time they need to have a whole life.

The key is taking responsibility and initiative, deciding what your life is about and prioritizing your life around the most important things.

An empowered organisation is one in which individuals have the knowledge, skill, desire, and opportunity to personally succeed in a way that leads to collective organisational success.

The most important ingredient we put into any relationship is not what we say or what we do, but what we are.

It's amazing how confused and distracted and misdirected so many people are.

Effective leadership is putting first things first. Effective management is discipline, carrying it out.

Each of us tends to think we see things as they are, that we are objective. But this is not the case. We see the world, not as it is, but as we are - or, as we are conditioned to see it.

The average family spends 30 hours in front of a television, and they say they don't have the time to have a balanced, integrated life.

I affirm to you the tremendous potential you have, not beyond anything you could ever imagine.

When it comes to developing character strength, inner security and unique personal and interpersonal talents and skills in a child, no institution can or ever will compare with, or effectively substitute for, the home's potential for positive influence.

In relationships the little things are the big things.

You have to water the flowers you want to grow.

While we are free to choose our actions, we are not free to choose the consequences of our actions.

Reactive people... are often affected by their physical environment. They find external sources to blame for their behavior.

The ability to subordinate an impulse to a value is the essence of the proactive person.

The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.

There is a heavy emphasis in Mormonism on initiative, on responsibility, on a work ethic, and on education. If you take those elements together with a free-enterprise system, you've got the chemistry for a lot of industry.

Listen with your eyes for feelings.

We are not human beings on a spiritual journey. We are spiritual beings on a human journey.

Doing more things faster is no substitute for doing the right things.

We are not animals. We are not a product of what has happened to us in our past. We have the power of choice.

Interdependent people combine their own efforts with the efforts of others to achieve their greatest success.

There are three constants in life... change, choice and principles.

How can you possibly reconcile the justice of God with the idea that only through Christ can you be saved? Most of the world lives and dies and never even hears of Christ. There has to be some mechanism set up for all those who have ever lived to have an opportunity to hear of Christ.

You think effectiveness with people and efficiency with things.

A good affirmation has five basic ingredients: it's personal, it's positive, it's present tense, it's visual, and it's emotional.

Life is not accumulation, it is about contribution.

Most leaders would agree that theyd be better off having an average strategy with superb execution than a superb strategy with poor execution. Those who execute always have the upper hand.

Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success; leadership determines whether the ladder is leaning against the right wall.

Accountability breeds response-ability.

If there's one thing that's certain in business, it's uncertainty.

In the last analysis, what we are communicates far more eloquently than anything we say or do.

When the external factors over which one has no control in a way start to become negative, it starts to affect our creative juices.

An abundance mentality springs from internal security, not from external rankings, comparisons, opinions, possessions, or associations.

Be governed by your internal compass not by some clock on the wall.

Between stimulus and response, there is a space where we choose our response.

People and organizations don't grow much without delegation and completed staff work because they are confined to the capacities of the boss and reflect both personal strengths and weaknesses.

Find your voice and inspire others to find theirs.

Every time you think the problem is 'out there,' that very thought is the problem.

We see the world not as it is, but as we are.

Opposition is a natural part of life. Just as we develop our physical muscles through overcoming opposition - such as lifting weights - we develop our character muscles by overcoming challenges and adversity.

In the last analysis what we are communicates far more eloquently than anything we say or do.

If the ladder is not leaning against the right wall, every step we take just gets us to the wrong place faster.

We are the creative force of our life, and through our own decisions rather than our conditions, if we carefully learn to do certain things, we can accomplish those goals.

Historically, the family has played the primary role in educating children for life, with the school providing supplemental scaffolding to the family.

The challenge of work-life balance is without question one of the most significant struggles faced by modern man.

Be patient with yourself. Self-growth is tender; it’s holy ground. There’s no greater investment.

You are dependent if you allow the weaknesses of other people to ruin your emotional life

Employers and business leaders need people who can think for themselves - who can take initiative and be the solution to problems.

Happiness, like unhappiness, is a proactive choice.

The proactive approach to a mistake is to acknowledge it instantly, correct and learn from it.

I am not a product of my circumstances. I am a product of my decisions.

Trust is central to an economy that works.

The world has entered an era of the most profound and challenging change in human history.