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WEEKLY FAX OF LIFE INSPIRATIONAL
E-MAIL “The Pastor’s Kitten” - (see attachment)
SPECIAL REPORT: SCHOOLS/PANDA
RESTAURANT GROUP
TEAM
FOR SUCCESS
By Art Landing, Editor, Rosemead Kiwanis Club Newsletter
The Panda Restaurant Group is partnering
with Rosemead’s
two school districts to teach students the seven habits of highly
effective people as enumerated by Stephen Covey in his well known book.
Developing these habits, says Kiwanian
Virginia Peterson, Superintendent of the Garvey District, who presented a
review of them to the Rosemead Kiwanis Club at their Nov 6 meeting,
is good for everyone. They prepare people to better handle all
aspects of life, especially scholastically, personally, and in the
workplace.
According to Covey there is a continuum
that all individuals need to travel to reach their full potential. It
starts with an initial total dependence, moves to independence, and
culminates in interdependence.
Dealing with personal individual issues
involves steps related to the first change, from dependence to
independence. Dealing with issues that involve and impact others involves
steps related to the second change, from independence to interdependence.
This cycle ideally should repeats in variations throughout our
lives.
This dual level of change may be diagrammed as follows
Dependence à Independence
à
Interdependence
Private Victories
To move from Dependence to Independence requires
that a person engage in three habits collectively known as “private
victories”:
1.
Be proactive This involves the
habit of taking initiative rather than just being reactive when issues
arise. Effective people accept personal responsibility for dealing with
situations rather than falling into the codependent trap of playing the
victim and blame game.
2.
Begin with the end in mind This involves
developing the habit of vision, envisioning what the end result will look
like. Effective people realize that getting to any goal is
like scoring in football – it usually takes time and multiple steps,
including some course corrections and possible reversals along the way.
3.
Put first things first This involves the
habit of placing structure in ones life. Effective people learn to
prioritize in pursuing the resolution which has been envisioned; some
things need at times to be cut, condensed or delegated to others.
Once these three victories have been
initially achieved a person has developed the three habits needed to
reach the state of Independence.
This status will be improved upon as these
“private victory” principles are repeated in various situations.
Public Victories
From the platform of independence it is
then needful to work towards interdependence. To move from
independence to interdependence requires that a person engage in
developing three habits called “public victories”:
1. Think
win-win This habit involves approaching situations with the idea of
giving as well as getting, so that both parties accrue a benefit.
Effective people try to work with others rather than controlling or
conquering them because they realize that this is a better long-term
benefit for both.
2. SFUTBU
- This acronym means “Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood, ” or the habit of empathetic
listening. Effective people recognize that this is an essential precursor
to developing win-win scenarios.
3. Synergize Synergy is the habit of working
together to produce greater results than working alone. This habit
involves developing team or partnership relationships – of which the RKF
(Rosemead Kiwanis Family) and RKN (Rosemead Kiwanis Network) are
examples. There are many barriers to optimal cooperation, but
effective people strive to remove these instead of becoming frozen in
their own comfort zones.
The ability to function at an
interdependent level through these “public victories” is a reflection of
most highly effective people. As with private victories these principles
will have to be reiterated in various new situations,
Sharpening the Saw
There is yet one additional habit to add
to those above. the habit of renewal.
The key here is to develop the habit of
taking take time for yourself. Ms.
Petersen referred to it as “sharpening the saw.” The term is taken from
an old tale about a weary workman who was so busy sawing lumber that he
failed to take time to sharpen his saw. Had he but done so his task
would been much easier and his productivity
would have soared.
“Sharpening the saw” in this context means
taking time for oneself in four critical areas: Mental, social-emotional,
physical and spiritual. If we can love and care for ourselves in these
areas we can then better love and serve others. This, according to Ms.
Peterson, is the habit that is key to making us
maximally effective people.
Both students and staff in the Garvey and Rosemead districts
are being taught to systematically think in terms of the above 7 habits.
This includes using the related vocabulary. She suggested that groups
involved with students in these districts, such as our Rosemead Kiwanis
club members, should similarly master the vocabulary. We can then
use it when working with students and staff, producing both private and
public victories that illustrate we are ourselves practicing habits of
highly effective people.
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