"Proactive people," he says, "are driven by values-carefully thought about, selected and internalized values." 13 Whether proactive people produce good or bad, of course, depends on whence their values-Messiah or Machiavelli, for example, Heaven or Hitler? Covey says, "Our basic nature is to act, and not be acted upon." 14 Some of the world's worst villains have believed the same.Ĭovey says the blessings of living the first three habits will be. Naturally enough then, the first of Covey's seven habits is to be proactive. There he taught that a man cannot be saved in ignorance, that knowledge and intelligence gained in this life will provide an advantage in the next, and that all blessings from God are based on, and obtained by obedience to, law. 10Smith's statement is only explication of what he originally wrote in the Book of Mormon: "Adam fell that men might be and men are, that they might have joy." 11 Smith developed these thoughts even more fully in the Doctrine and Covenants. But we cannot keep all the commandments without first knowing them, and we cannot expect to know all, or more than we now know unless we comply with or keep those we have already received. Covey's unattributed quote, in fact, is from Joseph Smith: Happiness is the object and design of our existence and will be the end thereof if we pursue the path that leads to it and this path is virtue, uprightness, faithfulness, holiness, and keeping all the commandments of God. They represent the internalization of correct principles upon which enduring happiness and success are based." 8 The process of adopting and adapting to these habits, he says, "produces happiness, 'the object and design of our existence.'" 9 Unnoted is the fact that all these statements express other assumptions basic to the Mormon paradigm on life taught by Joseph Smith. Covey is urging that humans on this earth, as the literal spirit children of God, must follow the same course, or suffer the consequences.Ĭovey says, "When we value correct principles, we have truth-knowledge of things as they are." 7 The seven habits urged in his book, says Covey, "are basic they are primary. The only way in which He can be called the source of these correct principles is that having become obedient to them Himself, and organizing His own kingdom accordingly, he has passed them on to His progeny. 5 But the God of this world, according to Mormonism, only "came to be God" 6 by His own submission and obedience to these "natural laws" of the universe that existed independently of, and prior to, Himself. As taught by Joseph Smith, crystallized by Lorenzo Snow, and quoted in hundreds of Mormon Church published books and manuals, 4 "As man is, God once was as God is, man may be." It is a polytheistic system that denigrates God by humanizing Him, and exalts man by deifying him.Ĭovey says God is "the source" of the proper paradigm, the "correct principles" or "natural laws" that underlie the seven habits promoted in his book. The most basic assumption in the paradigm of Mormonism is stated quite simply: Gods exist, and they are advanced humans humans on earth are the same species, and are "Gods in embryo." They will become Gods if they live according to the proper paradigm for this life. If one credits Covey with any integrity, then his book must at least assume basic Mormon teaching and may be expected to promote and even offer some of that teaching as true. 3 Christian readers of The Seven Habits who know Covey is a Mormon naturally want to know if the book is true to Covey's own paradigm as a Mormon. Though he is frank to admit this in his Mormon published works, 2 not so in The Seven Habits. And the damage potential of the wrong paradigm on life extends all the way to eternity.Ĭovey's own most basic paradigm on life is Mormonism, what he calls the gospel. To the degree that one's paradigm on life errs, all one's perceptions of life and of others in one's life will be skewed, creating unnecessary misunderstandings, hurt, and possibly even danger to oneself and others. However, they may or may not correspond to reality. 1 These assumptions are so basic to one's thinking that one seldom notices their existence, much less questions their accuracy. A major premise of The Seven Habits has to do with one's paradigm on life-one's worldview, the basic set of assumptions about life that filter all one's perceptions of life, and color one's understanding of all of life. Covey, former Brigham Young University professor and founder of the Covey Leadership Center, has been a runaway best-seller for the last decade. The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, a book written by Stephen R.
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