7 Habits of Highly Effective Families

September 1, 1997
Covey's "7 Habits" ("Be proactive"; "Begin with the end in mind," etc.) have become well-known in business and in the field of personal self-help through his popular seminars and bestselling books, including The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Principle-Centered Leadership and First Things First. Now Covey applies the Habits to family life, advising parents to create a "beautiful family culture" by setting aside regular "family time" and applying "one-on-one bonding" with each family member, and by maintaining an "Emotional Bank Account." Asserting that "happy families have certain constant characteristics, and these characteristics are contained in the 7 Habits," Covey provides "a basic framework of fundamental principles that you can apply to any situation." With personal stories from his own large family and many others, he clearly illustrates the practices of being "proactive" rather than reactive; creating a "family mission statement" and using it to guide all family decisions and actions; making family a real priority in daily life; counteracting negative influences of society; and replacing "criticizing, complaining, comparing, and competing" with understanding one another, supporting mutual success and "synergizing" into a "we" mind-set. Ending each chapter with exercises for sharing the Habits with children, teens and other adults, this smoothly written book provides excellent advice for the "highest role and most important stewardship" of parenting. Major ad/ promo; simultaneous Golden Books Audio.