My Review on the Franklin Covey "The 5 Choices" Seminar Overview

As promised on my last post.. here is my review of the Seminar Overview of "The 5 Choices" by FranklinCovey Philippines.


7 Habits and 5 Choices

The whole idea of the 5 Choices to Extraordinary Productivity is all about thinking long term and following through with your goals. It successfully integrates the 7 Habits of Hghly Effective People (the higly-acclaimed book) but focuses more on productivity - and doing it extraordinarily!

Thus, the main focus is on how you are going to be able to realistically & effectively achieve goals – not just getting mediocare results – by doing Q2 activities (focus on the important but not urgent) & scheduling the Big Rocks (things of higher value) first. This, for me, is the essence of FranklinCovey's 5 choices. By knowing and clarifying your roles and goals, you are able to practice Habit 2 (beginning with the end in mind), and Habit 3 (First Things First).

To know more about the book "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People", you can check on Amazon.com:

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey

This paradigm by FranklinCovey offers a panacea for a realistic & effective Time Management and ensures high Productivity for ordinary people, employees, managers, and business owners – and maybe even investors.

In everyday living, they say we have 5 Choices for us to achieve Extraordinary Productivity. Checking on their website and doing screenshots of their website, we will see that in everyday living we have 5 Choices:

Here is Step 1:

From the book 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, we can identify our daily activities into 4 Quadrants or what we call the Time Management Matrix:

As a rule in effective Time Management, we have 4 Quadrants - we separate them by Importance and Urgency. When you are feeling like your life as an employee is running you over, or that your business is owning you instead of you owning it – that only means one thing: you are focusing most of your life and your time in Quadrant 1.

From being able to clarify what’s important to us, may it be business, family life, spouse or love one, son / daughter, your role as president of your company, the project manager, a salesperson, an investor or entrepreneur – and knowing what activities are in Quadrant 2, relative to these various roles that you have in life, you can then set realistic goals.

Here is Step 2:

Step 2 says: Decide now. What are your roles? List them down.

What do you want to be the outcome (the “end in mind”) for your role, say as a business owner or investor? Okay, I want financial freedom. Check.

But don’t be contented with just getting ordinary results. Get Extraordinary results! Okay, I want to be rich but be spiritual / religious at the same time, and be able to give willingly to my fellow Filipinos especially my family, my katribus, and then the impoverished, once I am financially free. Check. 

Now set your goals and activities to reach that outcome. Okay, I wanna learn how to acquire foreclosed properties and have it rented out so my tenants will be paying for the mortgage, while at the same time the property is slowly gaining equity. Check. I want to know how to do technical analysis in stocks investing. Check! I want to know more about investing in MLM and opening my mind to the possibilities, accumulating wealth while at the same time helping out my business partners. Check!

To know more about the book "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People", you can check on Amazon.com:

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey

Here is Step 3:

From knowing your goals for every role in your life, you can then proceed into renewing yourself every week, resolving to schedule and do high-value activities first, you will be able to accomplish more in life. This requires serious amount of discipline. I mean SERIOUS discipline. So expect that. Don’t fool yourself believing you can go far even without hard work and discipline.

But knowing that you have already set goals and listed your activities, you will find that you are finally getting some direction in your life! You will see & feel this when you are slowly transforming your life week after week after week by constantly revisiting your roles & goals (the goals you’ve set & written in the first place). You will see that by scheduling the big rocks (which is similar to what renowned business author / guru Brian Tracy refers to as “Eating the Frog”) first, you are able to accomplish more things in less and less time.

Because if you really understand the importance of Q2 (important/not urgent) activities, of "eating the frog" or scheduling the big rocks and finishing what’s important first (w/c is usually the hardest thing to do), you will end up having MORE TIME in the END! Hey, this week, I’ve finished doing that presentation slide and made sure it effectively and clearly shows the benefits of going Solar. Check. Hey, this week, I got a very satisfied customer! Check!

Now I can really enjoy life and enjoy some real recreation!

It only gets better. Because the faster you finish those Q2 activites, the faster you will have more time so you can enjoy & relax, or do the things you realy love doing while not being pushed on by any urgencies or pressing activities.

Here is Step 4:

This only means 1 thing. Use that iPad to show the Business Plan, or that Meeting Agenda, or that Sales Presentation more effectively! Not play Angry Birds or DOTA and end up getting Angry Management courses.

Here is Step 5:

The real great thing here is that this paradigm will give you more and more balance in your life. Short-term thinkers won’t see the impact of this because all they do is act on what they feel like doing, or what they are being pressed on doing - were they easily end up feeling victimized, or get easily tempted doing unimportant escapist activities. They tend to put up the important things they really need to do and easily choose the gravels in life instead of the big rocks, feeling more pressure, procrastinating.. the list goes on and on. What you end up having is a life where you are not in control - but rather, a life that controls and owns you!

It's not a "purpose-driven life".
It's an "autopilot-driven life".

A life without a purpose! 

That’s why some people say, own your business – not your business owning you (because they don’t do the Q2 activity of careful planning and handling of finances)!

By understanding the 5 choices and the 7 habits of Highly Effective People, by acting based on principle-centered time-management, you will end up overcoming fear & procrastination without thinking about it.
It's a wholistic, tightly-integrated approach not only applicable to productivity - but also to living your life, I repeat.. YOUR LIFE, in general.

You will not only end up freeing yourself, having and spending more time on what matters most to you - your relationships, enjoy reaping what u sow: the fruits of real & lasting success born out of your hard work; and ultimately… you will get to attain true contentment, true health, true wealth in all areas of your life - not just financially (if that is just your goal).

Who wouldn't want a life were you get to reach your goals, your dreams, while at the same time being genuinely happy inside & out? There's a higher plain out there, higher than attaining financial freedom. It's called Balance. It's called Inner Peace.


If there's something you realy need to invest wisely on, it's this. Investing is not only applicable with using your money wisely. The wisest investment is investing on wisdom.

Practice the 7 habits. Be aware of your 5 choices and act on it.

And soon the phrase "live happily ever after" will be transformed from fantasy to reality.


JCV


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Next time. I will tell you about how at one very low point in my life, the 7 Habits book changed my life and saved me from Tuberculosis.

And how, with God willing, it seems that it is saving my life again.

To know more about the book "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People", you can check on Amazon.com:

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey

The Search for WISDOM by Solomon - and how you can apply it to Business and Investing

The Moral Benefits of Wisdom
Proverbs 2:1-9
FROM: Our Daily Bread (Jan. 3, 2012 entry), biblegateway.com


1 My son, if you accept my words
and store up my commands within you,
2 turning your ear to wisdom
and applying your heart to understanding—
3 indeed, if you call out for insight
and cry aloud for understanding,
4 and if you look for it as for silver
and search for it as for hidden treasure,
5 then you will understand the fear of the LORD
and find the knowledge of God.
6 For the LORD gives wisdom;
from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.
7 He holds success in store for the upright,
he is a shield to those whose walk is blameless,
8 for he guards the course of the just
and protects the way of his faithful ones.
9 Then you will understand what is right and just
and fair—every good path.


There's not much words that could better say it. If you really want to succeed in businesss and in your investments, hear what this Bible verse has to say.

If you really want to succeeed, you humble yourself and learn. Acquire skills, knowledge and above all - WISDOM. Be wise. If ABC in Sales says "Always Be Closing", this timeless, classic bible verse says: ABW - "Always Be Wise".

Always Be Wise

Always go for learning. Always go for wisdom. I think this also basically sums up the idea of NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming).

Learn everything about business. Be humbled by your learnings. Understand that if you're going to succeed, you are going to continually be a student of life, not just your business. This way you will be wise.

That's why you always hear great basketball players like Michael Jordan or Dwyane Wade say "I'm a student of the game." This is very much true.

Just like how "Mike" succeeded in the game of basketball, he was a student first. He's gone through the hardship, rejection, failure from his High School try-out to his numerous on-court basketball battles. Then when he was pursuing success (aka, Championship first, Hall of Fame Legacy 2nd), he wisely humbled himself and rose up from his failures, learned more and more, trained harder and harder, persevered with hard work. And ultimately, he led himself - and his teammates, to their dream goal.

Wise for him to do so.

At the end, he has the last say. No one in his right mind can object that he became the greatest, the best in his chosen field. In the one good thing that he really loves and cares with passion.

How much is the difference between a million and a billion?

Be wise. Be a student first. You can't claim anything. You can't claim success - even if you already are a billionaire. If you really are successful, very well then - you are successful now. No one can say so in 5, 10, 20 or so years. Because money is not permanent. Nothing is permanent. Except your your character, your legacy, your wisdom. Even Donald Trump, at one time, was a multi-millionaire before he went down deeply in debt (they say he was even poorer than a beggar, with all the business failures he experienced at the time which was caused naturally by market crash & market downturn). But with great wisdom and a great mindset - he rose up and became one of the most powerful business leaders and multi-billionaires today. He was poor, but then he came back even stronger than ever before.

That is what wisdom can do. It can be the difference between a million and a billion.

Start building by mastering yourself and continually gaining wisdom. Learn and relearn, discover and re-discover. Hear everything, read everything, learn everything. But be sure to keep them, apply them and put them into ACTION!

Inner victory first. Outer success will come along.