这本书本来应该更流行的。

1 书中的很多原则如 P/PC balance，Qurdrant Ⅱ，To begin with end in mind，都是一些非常流行同时非常深刻的道理。作者将它整理出来，形成了一个体系，并且以极大的耐心反复训导你。从这个角度来说，我们应该向作者致敬。可惜，我没有耐心读后4个原则，因为目前的经历很难跟作者形成共鸣。只好大致浏览了一下中文版。

2 这本书每一个人都应该看看。它在美帝国主义那儿几乎人手必备。在中国之所以不流行，是因为翻译成中文后，语言亦或文化差异把它毁了。

3 一下是书摘：

Some of this literature acknowledged character as an ingredient of success, but tended to compartmentalize it rather than recognize it as foundational and catalytic.

The more aware we are of our basic paradigms, maps, or assumptions, and the extent to which we have been influenced by our experience, the more we can take responsibility for those paradigms, examine them, test them against reality, listen to others and be open to their perceptions, thereby getting a larger picture and a far more objective view.

The degree to which our mental maps accurately describe the territory does not alter its existence.

It is contrary to nature, and attempting to seek such a shortcut only results in disappointment and frustration.

Had I been more mature, I could have relied on my own intrinsic strength—my understanding of sharing and of growth and my capacity to love and nurture—and allowed my daughter to make a free choice as to whether she wanted to share or not to share.



In order to see our son differently, Sandra and I had to be differently.We can’t go very far to change our seeing without simultaneously changing our being, and vice versa.

Principles are not values. A gang of thieves can share values, but they are in violation of the fundamental principles we are talking about.Principles are the territory. Values are maps. Principles are guidelines for human conduct that are proven to have enduring, permanent value.

The way we see the problem is the problem.

Albert Einstein observed, “The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them.”

It’s a principle-centered, character-based, “inside-out” approach to personal and interpersonal effectiveness.

Our character, basically, is a composite of our habits.

You can’t invert that process anymore than you can harvest a crop before you plant it.

It simply wasn’t effective.

Keeping P and PC in balance makes a tremendous difference in the effective use of physical assets.

It balances short term with long term.

The P/PC Balance is the very essence of effectiveness.

It’s validated in every arena of life. We can work with it or against it, but it’s there. It’s a lighthouse. It’s the definition and paradigm of effectiveness upon which the Seven Habits in this book are based.

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

The commitments we make to ourselves and to others, and our integrity to those commitments, is the essence and clearest manifestation of our proactivity.

Knowing that we are responsible—“response-able”—is fundamental to effectiveness and to every other habit of effectiveness we will discuss.

By keeping that end clearly in mind, you can make certain that whatever you do on any particular day does not violate the criteria you have defined as supremely important, and that each day of your life contributes in a meaningful way to the vision you have of your life as a whole.

In our personal lives, if we do not develop our own self-awareness and become responsible for first creations, we empower other people and circumstances outside our Circle of Influence to shape much of our lives by default.

Put another way, Habit 1 says, “You are the creator.” Habit 2 is the first creation.
Put another way, Habit 1 says, “You are the creator.” Habit 2 is the first creation.
People can’t live with change if there’s not a changeless core inside them.

We live in a world where instant gratification is available and encouraged.

The difference between your activity before and after you have formed a habit is a difference in facility and readiness. After practice, you can do the same thing much better than when you started. That is what it means to say practice makes perfect.

When we speak of a man as skilled in any way, we do not mean that he knows the rules of making or doing something, but that he possesses the habit of making or doing it.

But it is just as true of reading as it is of skiing that you cannot coalesce a lot of different acts into one complex, harmonious performance until you become expert at each of them.

Our security comes from knowing that, unlike other centers based on people or things which are subject to frequent and immediate change, correct principles do not change. We can depend on them.

By centering our lives on timeless, unchanging principles, we create a fundamental paradigm of effective living.

Writing or reviewing a mission statement changes you because it forces you to think through your priorities deeply, carefully, and to align your behavior with your beliefs.

He that is good with a hammer tends to think everything is a nail.

Important matters that are not urgent require more initiative, more proactivity.

We must act to seize opportunity, to make things happen. If we don’t practice Habit 2, if we don’t have a clear idea of what is important, of the results we desire in our lives, we are easily diverted into responding to the urgent.

The only relief they have is in escaping to the not important, not urgent activities of Quadrant IV.


Quadrant II is the heart of effective personal management.

Our effectiveness takes quantum leaps when we do them.

Your crises and problems would shrink to manageable proportions because you would be thinking ahead, working on the roots, doing the preventive things that keep situations from developing into crises in the first place.

And the way you do that is by having a bigger “yes” burning inside. The enemy of the “best” is often the “good.”

But without a principle center and a personal mission statement, they don’t have the necessary foundation to sustain their efforts.

A Quadrant II focus is a paradigm that grows out of a principle center.

Returning once more to the computer metaphor, if Habit I says “You’re the programmer” and Habit 2 says “Write the program,” then Habit 3 says “Run the program,” “Live the program.”

Effective delegation is perhaps the best indicator of effective management simply because it is so basic to both personal and organizational growth.

Integrity in an interdependent reality is simply this: you treat everyone by the same set of principles.

When we make withdrawals from the Emotional Bank Account, we need to apologize and we need to do it sincerely.

A person must possess himself and have a deep sense of security in fundamental principles and values in order to genuinely apologize.

They feel it makes them appear soft and weak, and they fear that others will take advantage of their weakness.

By recognizing that the P/PC balance is necessary to effectiveness in an interdependent reality, we can value our problems as opportunities to increase PC.

Personal P/C must be pressed upon until it becomes second nature, until it becomes a kind of healthy addiction.

Exercise is one of those Quadrant II, high-leverage activities that most of us don’t do consistently because it isn’t urgent.

Endurance comes from aerobic exercise, from cardiovascular efficiency—the ability of your heart to pump blood through your body.

Flexibility comes through stretching. Most experts recommend warming up before and cooling down/stretching after aerobic exercise. Before, it helps loosen and warm the muscles to prepare for more vigorous exercise. After, it helps to dissipate the lactic acid so that you don’t feel sore and stiff.

Strength comes from muscle resistance exercises—like simple calisthenics, push-ups, pull-ups, and sit-ups, and from working with weights.

As you act based on the value of physical well-being instead of reacting to all the forces that keep you from exercising, your paradigm of yourself, your self-esteem, your self-confidence, and your integrity will be profoundly affected.