Human Challenges in Life

The world today is more complex, stressful and demanding. The transition from Industrial age to the Information/Knowledge Worker Age, a new challenges and problems come into the individual life, families, organization. Changes in society, the way they operations where made, from manual labor to digitalized global marketplace.

Few of the most common human challenges human being face during his existence:

Fear and insecurity: Most of the people fear about the future, afraid of losing a job and how they could provide to their loved ones.

“I want it now”: People want thins in an instant. They want money, houses, cellular phones, car etc even it is not necessary. Some people will live not with their incomes.

Blame and victimism: When problem arises, the people start on finger-pointing on the other person, blaming the colleagues not thinking of what he had done personally. Society will thought that they are the victim of the tragic situation. “If only…If only my boss wasn’t such a controlling idiot…If I hadn’t born so poor…If I only live in a better place…If only I had the intelligence of my classmates…If only.” Maybe by blaming other people gives us a temporary relieve of the situation. It is a choice of every individual to blame and make the problem worst or just humbly accept the responsibility for the circumstances face and courageous to take whatever initiative to create or solve these challenges.

Hopelessness: Some people will lower themselves and feel hopeless, especially when they are surrounded with many bright, intelligent, talented people, they sometimes feel discourage. Think that you are a creative force on your own, a unique individual who can do something that anybody couldn’t do.

Lack of life balance: The technology society is increasingly complex, demanding, stressful, and absolutely exhausting. These things when not use wisely could absorb our time not cannot work effectively and feels fatigue after work. The problem of the culture today is that the people will go earlier, stay late, be more efficient, sacrifice for now but the truth is that a balance and peace of mind are not produced by these; they follow the person who develops a clear sense of his highest priorities and who lives with focus and integrity toward them.

What’s in it for me”: The culture today teaches that an individual must be number one in all aspects. “Life is a game, race competition, and you better win it.” Classmates, schoolmates, work colleagues, even our loved ones are seen as competitors, the more they win, the less there is for you. Some people are generously appreciating and congratulating with a cheer happy appearance but inwardly and privately they are jealous of the accomplishments. But the greatest opportunities and accomplishments of the Knowledge Worker Age are reserved for those who master the art “WE.” True greatness will be achieved through the abundant mind that work selflessly- with mutual respect, for mutual benefits.

The hunger to be understood: People wants to heard and understood by other people, they want a voice to be respected, valued and influence. Our culture demands for understanding and influence. The principle of influence is governed by mutual understanding born of the commitment of at least one person to deep listening first.

Conflict and differences: Though people live in one world, some live in the one country, one community, one family but they are so different. Each individual think differently, different in goals, values and motivations. Conflicts may arise from these diversity.

Personal stagnation: Human beings are complex individual with four dimensional-body, mind, heart, and spirit.

Body: Culture teaches the people to maintain lifestyle with treating the health problems with surgery and medication. Continue smoking because their will be a cure for it. But the principle is to prevent the disease and problems by aligning the lifestyle to be in harmony with established, universally accepted principles of health. “Prevention is better than cure.”

Mind: Culture teach to watch television, computer etc “entertain me” but reading is much more important by just watching them, our brain is compose of two hemisphere, if we keep on watching television it could alter the function of one hemisphere of the brain which is making imagination.

Heart: Culture use relationships with others to forwards your personal, selfish interest but the deep, respectful listening and serving others brings greatest fulfillment and joy.

Spirit: Culture yield to growing secularism and faultfinding but recognize the source of our basic need and seek the positive in life and believe the source of everything which is God in Heaven.

Inside-Out: The Change Starts from Within

While working on his doctorate in the 1970's, Stephen R. Covey reviewed 200 years of literature on success. He noticed that since the 1920's, success writings have focused on solutions to specific problems. In some cases such tactical advice may have been effective, but only for immediate issues and not for the long-term, underlying ones. The success literature of the last half of the 20th century largely attributed success to personality traits, skills, techniques, maintaining a positive attitude, etc. This philosophy can be referred to as the Personality Ethic.

However, during the 150 years or so that preceded that period, the literature on success was more character oriented. It emphasized the deeper principles and foundations of success. This philosophy is known as the Character Ethic, under which success is attributed more to underlying characteristics such as integrity, courage, justice, patience, etc.

The elements of the Character Ethic are primary traits while those of the Personality Ethic are secondary. While secondary traits may help one to play the game to succeed in some specific circumstances, for long-term success both are necessary. One's character is what is most visible in long-term relationships. Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, "What you are shouts so loudly in my ears I cannot hear what you say."

To illustrate the difference between primary and secondary traits, Covey offers the following example. Suppose you are in Chicago and are using a map to find a particular destination in the city. You may have excellent secondary skills in map reading and navigation, but will never find your destination if you are using a map of Detroit. In this example, getting the right map is a necessary primary element before your secondary skills can be used effectively.

The problem with relying on the Personality Ethic is that unless the basic underlying paradigms are right, simply changing outward behavior is not effective. We see the world based on our perspective, which can have a dramatic impact on the way we perceive things. For example, many experiments have been conducted in which two groups of people are shown two different drawings. One group is shown, for instance, a drawing of a young, beautiful woman and the other group is shown a drawing of an old, frail woman. After the initial exposure to the pictures, both groups are shown one picture of a more abstract drawing. This drawing actually contains the elements of both the young and the old woman. Almost invariably, everybody in the group that was first shown the young woman sees a young woman in the abstract drawing, and those who were shown the old woman see an old woman. Each group was convinced that it had objectively evaluated the drawing. The point is that we see things not as they are, but as we are conditioned to see them. Once we understand the importance of our past conditioning, we can experience a paradigm shift in the way we see things. To make large changes in our lives, we must work on the basic paradigms through which we see the world.

The Character Ethic assumes that there are some absolute principles that exist in all human beings. Some examples of such principles are fairness, honesty, integrity, human dignity, quality, potential, and growth. Principles contrast with practices in that practices are for specific situations whereas principles have universal application.

The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People presents an "inside-out" approach to effectiveness that is centered on principles and character. Inside-out means that the change starts within oneself. For many people, this approach represents a paradigm shift away from the Personality Ethic and toward the Character Ethic.

The Seven Habits - An Overview

The character of a person is composite of its habits basically. “Sow a thought, reap an action; sow and action, reap a habit; sow a habit, reap character; sow a character, reap a destiny.”

Person’s habit is a powerful factor of a person’s life. It is the unconscious pattern that constantly express in character and what makes a person effective or ineffective.

Habits can be learned through time and it can be also unlearn, not in a second, it needs time and tremendous commitment. Habits can pull a person like a gravity that hinder the person’s success or being effective like procrastination, impatience, criticalness, or selfishness that violate the basic principles of human effectiveness.

The first 3 habits deal with the self-mastery. They move a person from dependence which is from infancy to independent which is adulthood. They are the Private Victories the essence of character growth.

The next 3 habits is the Public Victories of teamwork, cooperation, and communication.

Habit # 7 is the habit of renewal- a regular balanced renewal of the four basic dimensions of life, it circles and embodies all the other habits. It is the habit of continuous improvement that creates the upward spiral of growth that lift a person to new levels of understanding and living each of the habits as a person comes around to them on a progressively higher plane.

Effectiveness is the balance of P/PC, P stands for production of desired results, the golden eggs. PC stands for production capability, the ability or asset that produces the golden eggs.

There was a poor farmer had a goose that lays a golden egg everyday and becomes fabulously wealthy, but because of increasing wealth comes greed and impatience. Unable to wait for the following day he killed the goose so he could inherit all the golden eggs that is in the stomach of the goose but unfortunately there was no golden egg inside the stomach.

True effectiveness is the function of two things the producing asset or the capacity to produce (goose) and what is produced (golden eggs). Some are ineffective because they are always aiming the golden eggs and neglect the goose.

Another illustration, a guy who buys the lawn mower, he used it over and over without maintain or checking the lawn mower. The mower worked for two seasons, then it began to break down. He tried to open it and discovered that the engine had lost over half of the original power capacity.

The guy is focus of the P, mowed the lawn, and not the PC preserving and maintaining the mower. He could spend far more time and money to replace the mower than spent in maintaining it.

Another example in an organization, a person is in charge is a machine, an is eager to make impression to his superiors. The machine produce at the maximum level with out maintaining it, will the profit is very high. He runs the machine day and night. With in a short span of time he is promoted. (he is focus on the golden eggs).

But if ever his successor inherit the left over machine (goose), by this time, is rusted and starts to break down, he will spend in downtime and maintenance. The successor will be blame of the low profit.

P/PC balance is particularly important as it applies to the human assets of an organization-customers and the employees. 

Our character is a collection of our habits, and habits have a powerful role in our lives. Habits consist of knowledge, skill, and desire. Knowledge allows us to know what to do, skill gives us the ability to know how to do it, and desire is the motivation to do it.

The Seven Habits move us through the following stages:

1. Dependence: the paradigm under which we are born, relying upon others to take care of us.

2. Independence: the paradigm under which we can make our own decisions and take care of ourselves.

3. Interdependence: the paradigm under which we cooperate to achieve something that cannot be achieved independently.

Much of the success literature today tends to value independence, encouraging people to become liberated and do their own thing. The reality is that we are interdependent, and the independent model is not optimal for use in an interdependent environment that requires leaders and team players.

To make the choice to become interdependent, one first must be independent, since dependent people have not yet developed the character for interdependence. Therefore, the first three habits focus on self-mastery, that is, achieving the private victories required to move from dependence to independence. The first three habits are:

* Habit 1: Be Proactive
* Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind
* Habit 3: Put First Things First

Habits 4, 5, and 6 then address interdependence:

* Habit 4: Think Win/Win
* Habit 5: Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood
* Habit 6: Synergize

Finally, the seventh habit is one of renewal and continual improvement, that is, of building one's personal production capability. To be effective, one must find the proper balance between actually producing and improving one's capability to produce. Covey illustrates this point with the fable of the goose and the golden egg.

In the fable, a poor farmer's goose began laying a solid gold egg every day, and the farmer soon became rich. He also became greedy and figured that the goose must have many golden eggs within her. In order to obtain all of the eggs immediately, he killed the goose. Upon cutting it open he discovered that it was not full of golden eggs. The lesson is that if one attempts to maximize immediate production with no regard to the production capability, the capability will be lost. Effectiveness is a function of both production and the capacity to produce.

The need for balance between production and production capability applies to physical, financial, and human assets. For example, in an organization the person in charge of a particular machine may increase the machine's immediate production by postponing scheduled maintenance. As a result of the increased output, this person may be rewarded with a promotion. However, the increased immediate output comes at the expense of future production since more maintenance will have to be performed on the machine later. The person who inherits the mess may even be blamed for the inevitable downtime and high maintenance expense.

Customer loyalty also is an asset to which the production and production capability balance applies. A restaurant may have a reputation for serving great food, but the owner may decide to cut costs and lower the quality of the food. Immediately, profits will soar, but soon the restaurant's reputation will be tarnished, the customer's trust will be lost, and profits will decline.

This does not mean that only production capacity is important. If one builds capacity but never uses it, there will be no production. There is a balance between building production capacity and actually producing. Finding the right tradeoff is central to one's effectiveness.

Habit 1: Be Proactive

Your life doesn't just "happen." Whether you know it or not, it is carefully designed by you. The choices, after all, are yours. You choose happiness. You choose sadness. You choose decisiveness. You choose ambivalence. You choose success. You choose failure. You choose courage. You choose fear. Just remember that every moment, every situation, provides a new choice. And in doing so, it gives you a perfect opportunity to do things differently to produce more positive results.

A unique ability that sets humans apart from animals is self-awareness and the ability to choose how we respond to any stimulus. While conditioning can have a strong impact on our lives, we are not determined by it. There are three widely accepted theories of determinism: genetic, psychic, and environmental. Genetic determinism says that our nature is coded into our DNA, and that our personality traits are inherited from our grandparents. Psychic determinism says that our upbringing determines our personal tendencies, and that emotional pain that we felt at a young age is remembered and affects the way we behave today. Environmental determinism states that factors in our present environment are responsible for our situation, such as relatives, the national economy, etc. These theories of determinism each assume a model in which the stimulus determines the response.

Viktor Frankl was a Jewish psychiatrist who survived the death camps of Nazi Germany. While in the death camps, Frankl realized that he alone had the power to determine his response to the horror of the situation. He exercised the only freedom he had in that environment by envisioning himself teaching students after his release. He became an inspiration for others around him. He realized that in the middle of the stimulus-response model, humans have the freedom to choose.

Animals do not have this independent will. They respond to a stimulus like a computer responds to its program. They are not aware of their programming and do not have the ability to change it. The model of determinism was developed based on experiments with animals and neurotic people. Such a model neglects our ability to choose how we will respond to stimuli.

We can choose to be reactive to our environment. For example, if the weather is good, we will be happy. If the weather is bad, we will be unhappy. If people treat us well, we will feel well; if they don't, we will feel bad and become defensive. We also can choose to be proactive and not let our situation determine how we will feel. Reactive behavior can be a self-fulfilling prophecy. By accepting that there is nothing we can do about our situation, we in fact become passive and do nothing.

The first habit of highly effective people is proactivity. Proactive people are driven by values that are independent of the weather or how people treat them. Gandhi said, "They cannot take away our self respect if we do not give it to them." Our response to what happened to us affects us more than what actually happened. We can choose to use difficult situations to build our character and develop the ability to better handle such situations in the future.

Proactive people use their resourcefulness and initiative to find solutions rather than just reporting problems and waiting for other people to solve them.

Being proactive means assessing the situation and developing a positive response for it. Organizations can be proactive rather than be at the mercy of their environment. For example, a company operating in an industry that is experiencing a downturn can develop a plan to cut costs and actually use the downturn to increase market share.

Once we decide to be proactive, exactly where we focus our efforts becomes important. There are many concerns in our lives, but we do not always have control over them. One can draw a circle that represents areas of concern, and a smaller circle within the first that represents areas of control. Proactive people focus their efforts on the things over which they have influence, and in the process often expand their area of influence. Reactive people often focus their efforts on areas of concern over which they have no control. Their complaining and negative energy tend to shrink their circle of influence.

In our area of concern, we may have direct control, indirect control, or no control at all. We have direct control over problems caused by our own behavior. We can solve these problems by changing our habits. We have indirect control over problems related to other people's behavior. We can solve these problems by using various methods of human influence, such as empathy, confrontation, example, and persuasion. Many people have only a few basic methods such as fight or flight. For problems over which we have no control, first we must recognize that we have no control, and then gracefully accept that fact and make the best of the situation.

Be Proactive is about taking responsibility for your life. You can't keep blaming everything on your parents or grandparents. Proactive people recognize that they are "response-able." They don't blame genetics, circumstances, conditions, or conditioning for their behavior. They know they choose their behavior. Reactive people, on the other hand, are often affected by their physical environment. They find external sources to blame for their behavior. If the weather is good, they feel good. If it isn't, it affects their attitude and performance, and they blame the weather. All of these external forces act as stimuli that we respond to. Between the stimulus and the response is your greatest power--you have the freedom to choose your response. One of the most important things you choose is what you say. Your language is a good indicator of how you see yourself. A proactive person uses proactive language--I can, I will, I prefer, etc. A reactive person uses reactive language--I can't, I have to, if only. Reactive people believe they are not responsible for what they say and do--they have no choice.

Instead of reacting to or worrying about conditions over which they have little or no control, proactive people focus their time and energy on things they can control. The problems, challenges, and opportunities we face fall into two areas--Circle of Concern and Circle of Influence.

Proactive people focus their efforts on their Circle of Influence. They work on the things they can do something about: health, children, problems at work. Reactive people focus their efforts in the Circle of Concern--things over which they have little or no control: the national debt, terrorism, the weather. Gaining an awareness of the areas in which we expend our energies in is a giant step in becoming proactive.

Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind

So, what do you want to be when you grow up? That question may appear a little trite, but think about it for a moment. Are you--right now--who you want to be, what you dreamed you'd be, doing what you always wanted to do? Be honest. Sometimes people find themselves achieving victories that are empty--successes that have come at the expense of things that were far more valuable to them. If your ladder is not leaning against the right wall, every step you take gets you to the wrong place faster.

Develop a principle-centered personal mission statement. Extend the mission statement into long-term goals based on personal principles.

Habit 2 is based on imagination--the ability to envision in your mind what you cannot at present see with your eyes. It is based on the principle that all things are created twice. There is a mental (first) creation, and a physical (second) creation. The physical creation follows the mental, just as a building follows a blueprint. If you don't make a conscious effort to visualize who you are and what you want in life, then you empower other people and circumstances to shape you and your life by default. It's about connecting again with your own uniqueness and then defining the personal, moral, and ethical guidelines within which you can most happily express and fulfill yourself. Begin with the End in Mind means to begin each day, task, or project with a clear vision of your desired direction and destination, and then continue by flexing your proactive muscles to make things happen.

One of the best ways to incorporate Habit 2 into your life is to develop a Personal Mission Statement. It focuses on what you want to be and do. It is your plan for success. It reaffirms who you are, puts your goals in focus, and moves your ideas into the real world. Your mission statement makes you the leader of your own life. You create your own destiny and secure the future you envision.

Habit 3: Put First Things First

To live a more balanced existence, you have to recognize that not doing everything that comes along is okay. There's no need to overextend yourself. All it takes is realizing that it's all right to say no when necessary and then focus on your highest priorities.

Spend time doing what fits into your personal mission, observing the proper balance between production and building production capacity. Identify the key roles that you take on in life, and make time for each of them.

Habit 1 says, "You're in charge. You're the creator." Being proactive is about choice. Habit 2 is the first, or mental, creation. Beginning with the End in Mind is about vision. Habit 3 is the second creation, the physical creation. This habit is where Habits 1 and 2 come together. It happens day in and day out, moment-by-moment. It deals with many of the questions addressed in the field of time management. But that's not all it's about. Habit 3 is about life management as well--your purpose, values, roles, and priorities. What are "first things?" First things are those things you, personally, find of most worth. If you put first things first, you are organizing and managing time and events according to the personal priorities you established in Habit 2.

Habit 4: Think Win/Win

Seek agreements and relationships that are mutually beneficial. In cases where a "win/win" deal cannot be achieved, accept the fact that agreeing to make "no deal" may be the best alternative. In developing an organizational culture, be sure to reward win/win behavior among employees and avoid inadvertantly rewarding win/lose behavior.

Think Win-Win isn't about being nice, nor is it a quick-fix technique. It is a character-based code for human interaction and collaboration.

Most of us learn to base our self-worth on comparisons and competition. We think about succeeding in terms of someone else failing--that is, if I win, you lose; or if you win, I lose. Life becomes a zero-sum game. There is only so much pie to go around, and if you get a big piece, there is less for me; it's not fair, and I'm going to make sure you don't get anymore. We all play the game, but how much fun is it really?

Win-win sees life as a cooperative arena, not a competitive one. Win-win is a frame of mind and heart that constantly seeks mutual benefit in all human interactions. Win-win means agreements or solutions are mutually beneficial and satisfying. We both get to eat the pie, and it tastes pretty darn good!

A person or organization that approaches conflicts with a win-win attitude possesses three vital character traits:

1. Integrity: sticking with your true feelings, values, and commitments
2. Maturity: expressing your ideas and feelings with courage and consideration for the ideas and feelings of others
3. Abundance Mentality: believing there is plenty for everyone

Many people think in terms of either/or: either you're nice or you're tough. Win-win requires that you be both. It is a balancing act between courage and consideration. To go for win-win, you not only have to be empathic, but you also have to be confident. You not only have to be considerate and sensitive, you also have to be brave. To do that--to achieve that balance between courage and consideration--is the essence of real maturity and is fundamental to win-win.

Habit 5: Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood

Communication is the most important skill in life. You spend years learning how to read and write, and years learning how to speak. But what about listening? What training have you had that enables you to listen so you really, deeply understand another human being? Probably none, right?

First seek to understand the other person, and only then try to be understood. Stephen Covey presents this habit as the most important principle of interpersonal relations. Effective listening is not simply echoing what the other person has said through the lens of one's own experience. Rather, it is putting oneself in the perspective of the other person, listening empathically for both feeling and meaning.

If you're like most people, you probably seek first to be understood; you want to get your point across. And in doing so, you may ignore the other person completely, pretend that you're listening, selectively hear only certain parts of the conversation or attentively focus on only the words being said, but miss the meaning entirely. So why does this happen? Because most people listen with the intent to reply, not to understand. You listen to yourself as you prepare in your mind what you are going to say, the questions you are going to ask, etc. You filter everything you hear through your life experiences, your frame of reference. You check what you hear against your autobiography and see how it measures up. And consequently, you decide prematurely what the other person means before he/she finishes communicating. Do any of the following sound familiar?

"Oh, I know just how you feel. I felt the same way." "I had that same thing happen to me." "Let me tell you what I did in a similar situation."

Because you so often listen autobiographically, you tend to respond in one of four ways:
Evaluating: You judge and then either agree or disagree.
Probing: You ask questions from your own frame of reference.
Advising: You give counsel, advice, and solutions to problems.
Interpreting: You analyze others' motives and behaviors based on your own experiences.

You might be saying, "Hey, now wait a minute. I'm just trying to relate to the person by drawing on my own experiences. Is that so bad?" In some situations, autobiographical responses may be appropriate, such as when another person specifically asks for help from your point of view or when there is already a very high level of trust in the relationship.

Habit 6: Synergize

Through trustful communication, find ways to leverage individual differences to create a whole that is greater than the sum of the parts. Through mutual trust and understanding, one often can solve conflicts and find a better solution than would have been obtained through either person's own solution.

To put it simply, synergy means "two heads are better than one." Synergize is the habit of creative cooperation. It is teamwork, open-mindedness, and the adventure of finding new solutions to old problems. But it doesn't just happen on its own. It's a process, and through that process, people bring all their personal experience and expertise to the table. Together, they can produce far better results that they could individually. Synergy lets us discover jointly things we are much less likely to discover by ourselves. It is the idea that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. One plus one equals three, or six, or sixty--you name it.

When people begin to interact together genuinely, and they're open to each other's influence, they begin to gain new insight. The capability of inventing new approaches is increased exponentially because of differences.

Valuing differences is what really drives synergy. Do you truly value the mental, emotional, and psychological differences among people? Or do you wish everyone would just agree with you so you could all get along? Many people mistake uniformity for unity; sameness for oneness. One word--boring! Differences should be seen as strengths, not weaknesses. They add zest to life.

Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw

Take time out from production to build production capacity through personal renewal of the physical, mental, social/emotional, and spiritual dimensions. Maintain a balance among these dimensions.

Sharpen the Saw means preserving and enhancing the greatest asset you have--you. It means having a balanced program for self-renewal in the four areas of your life: physical, social/emotional, mental, and spiritual. Here are some examples of activities:
Physical: Beneficial eating, exercising, and resting
Social/Emotional: Making social and meaningful connections with others
Mental: Learning, reading, writing, and teaching
Spiritual: Spending time in nature, expanding spiritual self through meditation, music, art, prayer, or service

As you renew yourself in each of the four areas, you create growth and change in your life. Sharpen the Saw keeps you fresh so you can continue to practice the other six habits. You increase your capacity to produce and handle the challenges around you. Without this renewal, the body becomes weak, the mind mechanical, the emotions raw, the spirit insensitive, and the person selfish. Not a pretty picture, is it?

Feeling good doesn't just happen. Living a life in balance means taking the necessary time to renew yourself. It's all up to you. You can renew yourself through relaxation. Or you can totally burn yourself out by overdoing everything. You can pamper yourself mentally and spiritually. Or you can go through life oblivious to your well-being. You can experience vibrant energy. Or you can procrastinate and miss out on the benefits of good health and exercise. You can revitalize yourself and face a new day in peace and harmony. Or you can wake up in the morning full of apathy because your get-up-and-go has got-up-and-gone. Just remember that every day provides a new opportunity for renewal--a new opportunity to recharge yourself instead of hitting the wall. All it takes is the desire, knowledge, and skill.

In the book, it started with the story, that a guy was trying to cut off the tree in the woods, he was exhausted after a 5 hours of sawing down the tree, and the other guy told him to pause for a minute and sharpen his saw so that it would be easier and faster to cut the tree.

It is the habit that makes all the others possible. The effectiveness of a person lies in the balance, PC balance, P stands for production of desired results, which is the golden eggs. PC stands for production capability, the ability pr asset that produces the golden eggs.

The 7th habit is the personal PC. It is the renewing of the four dimension of a person- physical (exercise, nutrition, stress management), social/emotional (service, empathy, synergy, intrinsic security), spiritual (value clarification and commitment, study and mediation), and mental (reading, visualizing, planning, writing).

The 7th habit is exercising these four dimensions of our nature, with regular and consistent in wise and balanced ways.

Physical Dimension is includes in caring effectively for the physical body, a person can attain this by following the acceptable healthy lifestyle, applying what was learned in the reading and not just merely applying what is said in the advertisement, because not all products that are advertise is true, it is for money purposes only. To become healthy, a person must eat the right kind, variety and combination of food, getting sufficient and enough rest and relaxation, and exercise on a regular basis.

Spiritual Dimension is the core, center and commitment of the value/principle of a person. It is a very private area of life and a supremely important one. It draws the person to be inspired and uplift the soul when in sorrow. Every person has its own way of sharpening the spiritual dimension.

Reading the scriptures (Bible) every morning before doing anything and in the evening before going to bed, and family worship everyday, meditation and renewal of spiritual strength is very important.

Going back to nature is a very essential in a person spiritual needs, once in a while, leave the noisy place which include the city, workplace and even the home, immerse yourself and have a harmony with the rhythm of nature, it gives the person a time to think and find the inner self.

Mental Dimension Most of the people read and have a deep study on the book because they are required in the school to study (formal education) after high school or college they stop leaving their mind useless, instead they spend most of their vacant time watching televisions, playing computer games and other entertaining gadget that the society offers.

There is no better way to inform, expand and sharpen the mental dimension on a regular basis that get into the habit of reading good literatures because not all books are relevant, train the mind to stand apart from examining the content of the literatures read. “The person who doesn’t read is no better off than the person who can’t read.”

Writing is another powerful way in sharpening the mental dimension, keeping a journal of thoughts, experiences, prayers, concerns, insight and new things that was learned promotes mental clarity, exactness and context.

Social/Emotional Dimension sharpening the social/emotional dimension is not the same as the other dimensions that it takes time, we can sharpen it in out daily conversation and interaction with our loved ones, brother, sister, parents, children, boss, subordinates, colleagues, friend, neighbor, spouse, member of the extended family, significant other or anyone you like to interact with.

Peace of mind comes when one’s life is in harmony with the true principles and values and in no other way. There is an intrinsic security that comes from creatively and cooperatively interact with other people, also an important source is from helping and giving service to other people, contribute and create a positive difference in the society, a healthy genuine concerns of other people and see to it that you are a blessing to their lives.

It is important to sharpen or renew the four dimension of human beings equally, will only be effective when the four dimensions are balanced. To neglect any one area negatively impacts the rest.

Let us say in the human body, we have different organs such as the lungs, heart, brain, kidneys, liver, pancreas etc. If a person is just caring for his lungs only by breathing the fresh air, not smoking etc, and not caring the liver e.g. drinking alcoholic beverages, the liver will be damage and cannot function well, in the further run, the other organs will be affected.

In an organization, when the organization is always thinking about the income or profit that will be gaining and not thinking about the employee and customers, the growth and productivity will be lessen.

Organizations and individuals that give recognition to each of these dimensions in their mission statement provide a powerful framework for balanced renewal and become an effective person.

Synergy in renewal: The things that a person do to sharpen the saw in any one dimension have a positive effect in the other dimensions because these dimensions are interrelated, for example, the physical health affects the mental health (vice versa); spiritual health affect the way you interact with other people and situation (social/emotional aspect). As a person improve one dimension eventually he will increase the ability in other dimension as well.

In 7 habits that Dr. Covey wrote is an effective tool to create an optimum synergy among these four dimension of the human being. The renewal in any dimension increases the ability to live at least one of the seven habits. And although the habits are sequential, improvement in one habit synergetically increases the ability to live the rest.

The more proactive a person is (habit # 1), the more he can effectively exercise the personal leadership and management in life (habit # 3). The more effective a person is the more renewing activities he will do. The more he will seek first to understand (habit # 5), the more a person can go for synergetic a win/win solutions (habits # 4 & 6). The more he will improve in any of the habits that lead to independence (habits # 1,2 & 3), the more he is effective in interdependent situation (habits # 4, 5 & 6). And renewal (habit # 7) is the process of renewing all the habits.

Once we are aware, we must choose purpose and principles to live by; other wise the vacuum will be filled, and we will lose our self-aware-ness and become like groveling animals who live primarily for survival and propagation.

There is no shortcut in developing these habit of being an effective person, we will continually educate our self and be aware. The law of harvest which says you will reap what you sow-no more no less. The law of justice is immutable, and the closer we align ourselves with correct principles, the better our judgment will be about how the world operates and the more accurate our paradigms-our maps of the authority-will be.

I order to grow and develop upwardly, a person must show diligent in the process of renewing by right education, obeying the conscience and applying what was learn. An increasingly educated conscience will propel, a person along the path of personal freedom, security, wisdom, and power.

Moving upward along the upward, a person is required to learn, commit, and do on increasingly higher planes. A person is fooling himself if he thinks that any one of these a sufficient. To keep progressing, a person must learn, commit what was leaned, and do (applying what was learned), the same process again and again, learn-commit-do.