In order to make something a habit in our lives, we have to have all three. And desire is the motivation, the want to do. Knowledge is the theoretical paradigm, the what to do and the why. For our purposes, we will define a habit as the intersection of knowledge, skill, and desire.We weave a strand of it everyday and soon it cannot be broken. Because they are consistent, often unconscious patterns, they constantly, daily, express our character and produce our effectiveness…or ineffectiveness. Habits are powerful factors in our lives. “Sow a thought, reap an action sow na action, reap a habit sow a habit, reap a character sow a character, reap a destiny,” the maxim goes. Our character, basically, is a composite of our habits.Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit. We must not cease from exploration and the end of all out exploring will be to arrive where we began and to know the place for the first.It says it is futile to put personality ahead of character. Private victories preceded public victories, that making and keeping promises to ourselves preceded making and keeping promises to others.Focus first on primary greatness of character.Albert Einstein observed, “The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them.”.Listening involves patience, openness, and the desire to understand – highly developed qualities of character. To relate effectively with a wife, a husband, children, friends, or working associates, we must learn to listen.We can only break ourselves against the law. It is impossible for us to break the law.They are natural laws that cannot be broken. The power of a paradigm shift is the essential power of quantum change, whether that shift is an instantaneous or a slow and deliberate process. Paradigms are powerful because they create the lens through which we see the world.Many people experience a fundamental shift in thinking when they face a life-threatening crisis and suddenly see their priorities in a different light, or when they suddenly step into a new role, such as that of husband or wife, parent or grandparent, manager or leader.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.When we open our mouths to describe what we see, we in effect describe ourselves, our perceptions, our paradigms. We see the world, not as it is, but as we are – or, as we are conditioned to see it. Each of us tends to think we see things as they are, that we are objective.The way we see things is the source of the way we think and the way we act. And out attitudes and behaviours grow out of those assumptions.We simply assume that the way we see things is the way they really are or the way they should be. We seldom question their accuracy we’re usually even unaware that we have them. We interpret everything we experience through these mental maps. Each of us has many, many maps in our head, which can be divided into two main categories: maps of the way things are, or realities, and maps of the way things should be, or values.This is simply the constant radiation of what man really is, not what he pretends to be. Into the hands of every individual is given a marvellous power for good or evil – the silent, unconscious, unseen influence of his life.What we are communicates far more eloquently than anything we say or do.There are, of course, situations where people have character strength but they lack communication skills, and that undoubtedly affects the quality of relationships as well.What you are shots so loudly in my ears I cannot hear what you say.Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe it can achieve.Smiling wins more friends than frowning.Your attitude determines your altitude.And to change ourselves effectively, we first had to change our perceptions. If we wanted to change the situation, we first had to change ourselves.There is no real excellence in all this world which can be separated from right living.Interdependence is a higher value than independence.***JOIN THE BESTBOOKBITS BOOK CLUB HERE *** ***GET SUMMARIES DELIVERED BY EMAIL WHEN RELEASED *** Listen on Apple Podcast Listen on Spotify
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