# The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People  Author:: Stephen R. Covey ## Highlights > Through a series of such disciplines—mental, emotional, and moral, principally using memory and imagination—he exercised his small, embryonic freedom until it grew larger and larger, until he had more freedom than his Nazi captors. They had more liberty, more options to choose from in their environment; but he had more freedom, more internal power to exercise his options. ([Location 1008](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B000WJVK26&location=1008)) > Look at the word responsibility—“response-ability”—the ability to choose your response. Highly proactive people recognize that responsibility. They do not blame circumstances, conditions, or conditioning for their behavior. Their behavior is a product of their own conscious choice, based on values, rather than a product of their conditions, based on feeling. ([Location 1037](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B000WJVK26&location=1037)) > The ability to subordinate an impulse to a value is the essence of the proactive person. Reactive people are driven by feelings, by circumstances, by conditions, by their environment. Proactive people are driven by values—carefully thought about, selected and internalized values. Proactive people are still influenced by external stimuli, whether physical, social, or psychological. But their response to the stimuli, conscious or unconscious, is a value-based choice or response. As Eleanor Roosevelt observed, “No one can hurt you without your consent.” ([Location 1048](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B000WJVK26&location=1048)) > I admit this is very hard to accept emotionally, especially if we have had years and years of explaining our misery in the name of circumstance or someone else’s behavior. But until a person can say deeply and honestly, “I am what I am today because of the choices I made yesterday,” that person cannot say, “I choose otherwise.” ([Location 1055](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B000WJVK26&location=1055)) > If you wait to be acted upon, you will be acted upon. ([Location 1135](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B000WJVK26&location=1135)) --- Title: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People Author: Stephen R. Covey Tags: readwise, books date: 2024-01-30 --- # The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People  Author:: Stephen R. Covey ## AI-Generated Summary None ## Highlights > Through a series of such disciplines—mental, emotional, and moral, principally using memory and imagination—he exercised his small, embryonic freedom until it grew larger and larger, until he had more freedom than his Nazi captors. They had more liberty, more options to choose from in their environment; but he had more freedom, more internal power to exercise his options. ([Location 1008](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B000WJVK26&location=1008)) > Look at the word responsibility—“response-ability”—the ability to choose your response. Highly proactive people recognize that responsibility. They do not blame circumstances, conditions, or conditioning for their behavior. Their behavior is a product of their own conscious choice, based on values, rather than a product of their conditions, based on feeling. ([Location 1037](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B000WJVK26&location=1037)) > The ability to subordinate an impulse to a value is the essence of the proactive person. Reactive people are driven by feelings, by circumstances, by conditions, by their environment. Proactive people are driven by values—carefully thought about, selected and internalized values. Proactive people are still influenced by external stimuli, whether physical, social, or psychological. But their response to the stimuli, conscious or unconscious, is a value-based choice or response. As Eleanor Roosevelt observed, “No one can hurt you without your consent.” ([Location 1048](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B000WJVK26&location=1048)) > I admit this is very hard to accept emotionally, especially if we have had years and years of explaining our misery in the name of circumstance or someone else’s behavior. But until a person can say deeply and honestly, “I am what I am today because of the choices I made yesterday,” that person cannot say, “I choose otherwise.” ([Location 1055](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B000WJVK26&location=1055)) > If you wait to be acted upon, you will be acted upon. ([Location 1135](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B000WJVK26&location=1135))