Comments on: Review: First Things First

By: Ananga Sivyer's Living by Design Blog

Ananga Sivyer's Living by Design Blog — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 06:39:15 +0000

Living by Design Blog Carnival No.13…

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By: Gordy

Gordy — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 15:13:34 +0000

Well, Trent, to prove I have been paying attention to your blogs, I picked up a used copy of the book at St. Vinnie’s for only three bucks. How’s that for frugal? Just barely into it at this point, but an initial flip-through shows some potential. Thanks for these reviews that point out some of the better books.

By: Brian

Brian — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 02:11:06 +0000

I enjoyed both books and have recommended them to people for years. I found them to both stimulate one to think about what is important in life and if encouraging ‘character’ in ones’ self is “righteous” than we need more righteousness…lol.

By: Bob T

Bob T — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 01:14:39 +0000

I guess it’s time to re-read this. I have a heavily annotated & highlighted copy of 7 Habits I got from a book club when it first came out. I don’t remember being bothered by any religious focus, and I tend to be sensitive about that. I’ll have to see if I made any translations in the margins.

I always thought it was unfortunate that the business world latched onto this in the 90′s and turned “proactive” and “win-win” into buzzwords.

By: Trent

Trent — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 18:32:34 +0000

See, I have personal issues like you all describe with Covey with Anthony Robbins, actually. Aspects of his tone really bother me. I am going to attempt to review one of his books at some point (probably Awaken The Giant Within).

The point of a personal development book is to take the material there and find what you can apply to your own life. I found there was more applicable material in this one than in 7 Habits (by far, actually).

By: js

js — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 17:36:00 +0000

I’ve read 7 habits, twice. And while I did read it seriously at first, I’ve decided I don’t like it, nor Covey’s philosophy. So I doubt I’ll ever be persuaded to read another Covey book. It’s not so much the religion that bothers me, although I’m not religious, but the rightousness.

It’s like one is supposed to go around all day thinking about the principles they live by and how wonderful they are for living by those principles (as opposed to the riff raff I guess). I don’t have a problem with goal setting, but drop the rightousness. Goal setting is just that, a means to an end (even if the end is a very long term thing like having a great career over decades). I find the kind of holier than thou mindset a book like 7 habits can induce positively neurotic and mentally unhealthy.

By: Tkriger

Tkriger — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 13:09:40 +0000

This is the book that the last class of my BS in business is based on (1 week left, thank jeebus).

Not my cup of tea, very preachy and touchy feely, I wouldn’t reccomend it.

By: plonkee

plonkee — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 12:46:22 +0000

I found 7 Habits slightly off-putting because it assumes that you believe in a higher power. Is First Things First similar in this respect?

By: Prabu

Prabu — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 08:12:16 +0000

I think I’ll go and read one chapter today!
Can you review any of ‘Awaken the giant within’ or any of Antony Robbins’s book, please?

Thanks and have a dramatic day!

Prabu!