Inside Out Again

The discovery that there is a gap between stimulus and response that we alone can fill in empowers us to take full charge of our own lives. No longer can we accept that we are a victim of circumstances, or that we have achieved anything simply because it is in our genes. The 7 Habits give anyone the ability to work from the inside out (character-driven acts) as opposed to an outside in approach (circumstances-driven). Real change comes from the inside out. It doesn’t come from hacking at the leaves of attitude and behavior. It comes from striking at the roots of the fabric of our thoughts, the paradigms we use and the essential pattern of our characters.

Achieving unity with ourselves, our loved ones, our friends and working associates is the highest and most delicious fruit of the 7 Habits. Building a character of total integrity isn’t easy but it’s possible. It isn’t a quick fix. By centering our lives on correct principles and creating a balanced focus between doing and increasing our ability to do, we become empowered in the task of creating effective, useful and peaceful lives.

“It was then that I drew, almost unconsciously, on the inner strength I had developed in Cell 54 of Cairo Central Prison - a strength, call it a talent or capacity, for change. I found that I faced a highly complex situation, and that I couldn’t hope to change it until I had armed myself with the necessary psychological and intellectual capacity. My contemplation of life and human nature in that secluded place had taught me that he who cannot change the very fabric of his thought will never be able to change reality, and will never, therefore, make any progress.”

— Anwar Sadat

“That which we persist in doing becomes easier - not that the nature of the task has changed, but our ability to do has increased.”

— Emerson

“We must not cease from exploration. And the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we began and to know the place for the first time.”

— T.S. Eliot

“I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by conscious endeavor.”

— Henry David Thoreau

“The fountain of content must spring up in the mind, and he who hath so little knowledge of human nature as to seek happiness by changing anything but his own disposition, will waste his life in fruitless efforts and multiply the grief he proposes to remove.”

— Samuel Johnson

“I have so much to do today, I’ll need to spend another hour on my knees.”

— Martin Luther King

“The greatest battles of life are fought out daily in the silent chambers of the soul.”

— David O. McKay

“Treat a man as he is and he will remain as he is. Treat a man as he can and should be and he will become as he can and should be.”

— Goethe