7 Habits of Highly Successful Teens

7 Habits of Highly Successful Teens

Habit 7

Part 2

 

Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw

      3) Heart: Always do what is right so your heart, your conscience, will feel peaceful. When you do wrong, your conscience will prick you and create regretful sensations within your heart. When you do what you honestly feel, you won’t have any regrets. Your heart is your internal compass—it gives you direction and discernment. Just like a magnetic compass gives directions, even true north, your personal compass, your heart, will point you in the true north, the exact directions and paths you need to trod.

 

 

4) Soul: Study scriptures and other sacred literature daily. In other words, feel your spirit because your spirit needs spiritual food just like your physical body needs temporal food to survive. Pondering, meditating, and reflecting are excellent Soul-sharpening activities. Try writing your thoughts, feelings, aspirations, concerns, and decisions in a diary or journal. Writing helps you focus and make good decisions.

 

Get into the habit of daily improving your body (physical fitness), your mind, your heart, and your soul.

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7 Habits of Highly Successful Teens

7 Habits of Highly Successful Teens

Habit 7

Part 1

 

Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw

Teens should never get too busy living to take time to renew themselves. When teens “sharpen the saw” they are keeping their personal self sharp so that they can better deal with life. It means regularly renewing and strengthening the four key dimensions of life—body, mind, heart, and soul

1)   Body. Eat wholesome foods, fruits, vegetables, legumes.

Avoid illegal drugs, smoking, alcohol, tobacco products, tattooing. Exercise regularly and effectively. Get plenty of rest at night. Get to bed early at night and get up early each morning. “Early to bed early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.”

2)   Mind. Think positively. Read. Study. Think. Analyze. Seek to read a good book each month. Then each week. Ask intelligent questions. Observe. Develop your mind through positive

     “Self-talk.”

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7 Habits of Highly Successful Teens

7 Habits of Highly Successful Teens

Part 6

 

Habit 6: Synergize

Synergy is achieved when two or more people work together to create something better than either could alone. Through this habit, teens learn it doesn’t have to be “your way” or “my way” but rather a better way, a higher way. Synergy allows teen to value differences and better appreciate others. Synergy is the reward, the delicious fruit you’ll taste as you get better at living the other habits, especially at thinking Win-Win and seeking first to understand. Learning to synergize is like learning to form V formations with others instead of trying to fly through life solo. You’ll be amazed at how much faster and farther you’ll go. Synergy doesn’t just happen. It’s a process. You have to get there. And the foundation of getting there is this: Learn to celebrate differences.

 

A good band is a great example of synergy. It’s not just the drums, or the guitar, or the sax, or the vocalist, it’s all of them together that make up the “sound.” Each band member brings his or her strengths to the table to create tot the table to create something better than each could alone. No instrument is more important than another, just different.
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7 Habits of Highly Successful Teens

7 Habits of Highly Successful Teens

Habit 5

 

5. Seek First to Understand, and then to be Understood

  Because most people don’t listen very well, one of the great frustrations in life is that many don’t feel understood. This habit will ensure your teen learns the most important communication skill there is: active listening.

 Why is this habit the key to communication? It’s because the deepest need of the human heart is to be understood. Everyone wants to be respected and valued for who they are—a unique, one-of-a-kind, never-to-be-cloned individual. People won’t expose their soft middles unless they feel genuine love and understanding. Once they feel genuine love and understanding. Once they feel it, however, they will tell you more than you may want to hear. People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.

Listen with your eyes, heart, and ears. 7 percent of communication is contained in the words we use. The rest comes from body language (53 percent) and how we say words, or the tone and feeling reflected in our voice (40 percent). Most people are eager to talk and had rather talk than listen. We have one month and two ears. This means we should listen twice as much as we talk. We actually learn more while listening rather than when we talk. Learn to listen and listen to learn.

Listen, really listen, for understanding.

Seek first to understand then to be understood—LISTEN.

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7 habits of Highly Effective Teens

7 habits of Highly Effective Teens

Habit 4

 

4. Think Win- Win

Teens can learn to foster the belief that is possible to create an atmosphere of Win- Win in every relationship. This habit encourages the idea that in any given discussion or situation both parties can arrive at a mutually beneficial solution. Your teen will learn to celebrate the accomplishments of others instead of being threatened by them. Win- Win is a belief that everyone can win. It’s both nice and tough all at once. I won’t step on you, but I won’t be your doormat either. You care about other people and you want them to succeed. But you also care about yourself, and you want to succeed as well. Win- Win is abundant. It is the belief that there’s plenty of success to go around. It’s not either you or me. It’s both of us. It’s not a matter of who gets the biggest piece of the pie. There’s more than enough food for everyone. It’s an all-you-can-eat buffet.

   Win- Win always creates more. Perhaps the most surprising benefit of thinking Win- Win is the good feelings it brings on. The true test of whether or not you are thinking Win- Win or one of the alternatives is how you feel. Win- Lose and Lose- Win thinking will cloud your judgment and fill you with negative feelings.

     Win- Win will fill your heart with happy and serene thoughts. It will give you confidence. Even fill you with light. Think Win- Win or no deal.

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7 Habits of Highly Successful Teens

7 Habits of Highly Successful Teens

Habit 3

 

Habit 3: Put First Things First

Habit three is about Will and will not power. This habit helps teens prioritize and manage their time so that they focus and complete the most important things in their lives. Putting first things first also means learning to overcome fears and being strong during difficult times. It’s living life according to what matters most. Putting first things first deals with things that are:

Important or not important, urgent or not urgent. Let’s look at the four quadrants of time management.

Quadrant 1: Things that are Important and Urgent

Quadrant 2: Things that are Important but not Urgent

Quadrant 3: Things that are Not Important but are Urgent

Quadrant 4: Things that are not Important and Not Urgent

 

1.     Important & Urgent	2.    Important but Not Urgent
3.   Not Important but are Urgent	4.   Not Important and Not Urgent

 

Quadrant 2 is the ideal place to spend our time, doing things that are important but not urgent. Here’s where priorities come to play. The results for living Quadrant 2 are:

1.     Control of your life.

2.     Balance

3.    High Performance.

 

So, in what quadrant are you spending most of your time? The key is to shift as much time as possible into Quadrant 2 and this is accomplished by planning. Spend more time planning and incorporating the most important things first, things that matter most. Keep your eyes on the prize and reach for it.

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7 Habits of Highly Successful Teens

7 Habits of Highly Successful Teens

Habit 2

 

Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind

If teens aren’t clear about where they want to end up in life, about their values, goals, and what they stand for, they will wander, waste timed, and be tossed to and from by the opinions of others. Help your teen create a personal mission statement which will act as a road map and direct and guide his decision-making process.

 

“Keep your eyes on the prize.” Determine your desired prize and don’t quit until you have realized the achievement of your prize. Then set another prize, another goal or desire that you would really like to achieve. Begin with the achievement of your prize in mind. Visualize and then realize. Start by having a target in mind; know when you are going.

 

One prize or goal you definitely need to establish for yourself is the prize of an honorable graduation from high school-that you will receive your diploma honestly and with integrity—that you earned it with perfect honesty.

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7 Habits of Highly Successful Teens

7 Habits of Highly Successful Teens

Habit 1

(By Sean Covey but modified)

 

Habit 1: Be Proactive.

Being proactive is the key to unlocking the other habits. Help your teen take control and responsibility for her life. Proactive people understand that they are responsible for their own happiness or unhappiness. They don’t blame others for their own actions or feelings. Proactive people realize that the ball is in their court, that they are the captain of their own ship; that they are in control, control of their decisions, thoughts, choices, decisions, goals, actions, and priorities. Proactive people are self-starters; they don’t wait to be told what to do, they press forward with enthusiasm toward the achievement of their assignment, their duties, their responsibilities, their obligations. Choosing to do what is right is a proactive decision. Obey the rules. Obey the law. Obey the coach. Obey the school policies. Obey your parents. Obey with exactness, and great things will come to you. Be proactive and take initiative.

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