The 7 Habits Of Highly Effective Teens summary

Having an eye on the future helps you make better decisions today. 

That’s why the second habit is to know what you want or need out of any situation before taking action. 

At this point we’ve already talked about taking responsibility for your choices, and making choices based on your future. Now it’s time to talk about the action you have to take to advance towards your goals. To get there, habit three tells us to put first things first. This habit has two parts: managing time, and managing fear. 

Managing time means exactly what it sounds like: planning. To get the most out of your time and continue progressing towards your goals, it’s best to establish regular planning habits. 

Claire was a good basketball player. She’d developed a particular shot that she could get pretty consistently and was getting the team lots of points. She was becoming something of a star – until her teammate, Diana, started to get jealous. 

Diana started keeping the ball, not passing it to Claire when she had a chance. Claire’s will to fight back was strong and she began working to keep the ball from Diana. Overall, this had a negative effect on the team. 

As a teenager, Julie was afflicted with anorexia. Anorexia is, of course, a dangerous disease, and that’s why everyone in Julie’s life was trying to push her to get help. But Julie didn’t want help – she was miserable being surrounded by people trying to fix her. 

When Julie went to college and met her three roommates, they immediately noticed how emaciated she was and how disordered her eating habits were. 

Synergy occurs when you work with others to achieve a higher goal. 

The habit of creating synergy is where you really start to see the compounding effects of all the previous habits. Let’s say you’ve had a vacation planned for ages, and all of a sudden, the night before leaving, your teenager says they don’t want to go. They want to stay home and spend time with their friends. 

Every body, mind, heart, and soul require maintenance. 

The seventh and final habit is about maintaining balance and good health in four dimensions of life. 

Being a successful teenager and an effective adult means building good habits from the inside out. It all starts with how you approach life. Are you a sailboat tossed on the seas, or are you a captain capable of surviving rough storms? As you begin taking charge of your life, you start developing a different approach to relationships. You find yourself able to listen and understand before judging or problem-solving. Being able to do this, you then follow a healthier framework for conflict management. At last, you’re able to maintain your health, well-being, and success through intentional self-care and relationship care.