Stephen Covey first published 7 Habits in 1989, and since then, the book has rocketed in popularity. He addresses a question that many people face: how can I live effectively? In other words, how can I accomplish my goals without wasting energy, time, and any other resource? Such a universal question captures a large audience, thus Covey writes for most any reader. However, there are genuinely lazy or apathetic people. As I have discovered through our class, not everyone harbors grand ambitions nor even cares whether they get mundane tasks completed “effectively,” nor wish to improve themselves. While Covey probably does not overlook this section of the population, he does not write for them.
The book’s opening section begins with a challenge, and I think deserves appreciation. People often want to hear what they already believe or feel comfortable doing. But Covey puts pressure on his reader, warning them of the “paradigm shift” that his book requires. What many call “disambiguation,” the questioning of your assumptions or current perspective and the feeling of discomfort that creates. Covey not only wants to challenge and upset our paradigms, he hopes to shift our paradigms.
Anyone who has changed knows that Covey is right. Real change requires some amount of pain or unsettling, even if it is an intellectual reordering. And opening his book with such a risky call may not attract readers, even the though book’s popularity suggests otherwise. Covey is straightforward and honest about his intentions, two strategies that mark the book’s strength’s.
He divides the work into three sections, focusing on the individual, the community, and the future. He relates each of these to self-improvement, particularly his stated thesis of achieving goals by attending to personal character. His chapters feature one of his seven habits. What constitutes evidence for Covey? He draws primarily from stories of individuals who model his thesis or particularly habit.
One strength of his personal story approach to evidence is that it makes the abstract concrete. Reading habit two, “Begin with the End in Mind,” leaves the reader wondering what that looks like and even what it means. But when Covey enumerates cases of men and women who begin with the end in mind, you discover that an abstract habit now makes sense. In other words, he puts clothes on the concept.
On the other hand, I wanted more than personal stories. A think discussion of ethical philosophies may benefit Covey and his readers. Covey is discussing ethics. He argues for a paradigm of how we should act in order to obtain our goals, and our actions should focus on, he claims, our character. Thus, Covey approaches ethics from a virtue standpoint, in the vein of Aristotle. However, he does not touch on what ethics is or why he forwards a character model.
Despite his focus on character, Covey also assumes a law-based ethic. The seven habits are essential seven laws that apply for all people at all times. So what is his paradigm missing? It seems to miss the contextual or situational perspective. That is, we must account for the people, place, and time—the unique situation—within which we aim to achieve our goals.
Covey does address other people in his “Interdependence” section. However, his whole paradigm assumes an ambitious, mainly autonomous, Western mindset. He seems to think that success is somehow guaranteed and that we all have resources and optimism to get up and going. However, what if an oppressed minority group read this book? Or someone with a community-oriented background? The talk of self-mastery and achievement may seem foreign or even foolish. But in spite of Covey’s shortcomings, his book as a whole provides helpful habits that many of us should consider. While we should not assume formulaic success, we should be open to paradigm shifts and affirm that much self-improvement is possible.
