How do you live?
I am a fan of Stephen Covey, his book "7 Habits of Highly Effective People" has helped millions of people
to be become better leaders. In one of his first chapters, he talks about an experience on a subway. A
father and his three young children entered the subway and the father sat down while his children
created chaos, they were loud, they were pushing into people, they were disrespectful jumping on and off chairs. Dad was just sitting there. Other people in the car were getting upset and finally someone spoke up and asked the father to control his children. The dad looks up in a daze as if he was oblivious of
what was happening. As he looked around, he said in a quiet tone, "I am sorry, my wife and their mom just passed away, and I guess we don't know how to handle it." All of a sudden, all the judgement that he and the children encountered turned into compassion. We just never know the story someone is carrying around with them. Covey's book talks about 7 habits that can change our lives:
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Be proactive: take initiative and responsibility for your life
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Begin with the end in mind: have a clear vision and purpose
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Put first things first: prioritize and manage your time
Think win/win: seek mutual benefits and cooperation
Seek first to understand, then to be understood listen empathically and communicate effectively Synergize: collaborate and create synergies
• Sharpen the saw: renew and improve yourself
Our daily life is shaped by what we have been taught and what we habitually do. We need to know what guides us, and that must be internal decisions and choices. What makes us get up in the morning and do what we do? What makes some of us go into public service? Why do people become council members,
pastors, teachers, garbage truck drivers, and professors? Only when we know why we do things can we have a good influence on others and change the future for the better. Merced is an amazing place where culture, education, commerce, and family come together and make a more merciful city. Just look at the
newspaper and social media to see how many different events are happening on any given day in this
city. It is amazing! Each one of us can have an impact on our community, but we need to do it with a clear compass that guides us, and that can only happen when we know what we believe and what we
stand for.
When we know who we are and what we stand for, we can show compassion on people who might be going through something difficult. We might be able to hear someone's story before we judge. We might be able to be more gracious with ourselves and our own failures.