“Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Everyone wants to live a better life but few people know how to make that happen. And the fact that there are hundreds of books offering us advice doesn’t make it any easier. One such book does. The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People (also available in South Africa) offers timeless information and is definitely one of the best places to start.

The goal: Ultimately, the goal is to create congruence between the personality (public life) and character (private life). Put another way, it’s about making sure the outer you and the inner you are aligned. Doing so requires us to focus on the character ethic and not the personality ethic. The personality ethic focuses on superficial solutions and quick fixes while the character ethic creates significant and long-lasting change from the inside out.

The process: To create lasting change one needs to start with the private victory before moving onto the public victory. It’s about fixing yourself first before attempting to fix everyone and everything around you. Understanding that the problems in your life are nobody’s fault but your own is very powerful. It’s what allows us to move along the maturity continuum from dependence (“you”), to independence (“me”), and finally to interdependence (“us”).

The requirement: Albert Einstein said, “We cannot solve problems with the same level of thinking with which we created them.” This is because the way we see the problem often is the problem. Again, it comes down to making radical changes from the inside out. Simply changing your attitude through pep talks will only create minor changes whereas real steps forward require breaking out of paradigms. It’s about learning to see the world in a different way.

(For more resources and tips, download your free copy of “Work in Progress” exclusively from www.varsityblah.com/about)