Resiliency, student engagement, and the seven habits framework

Steven Covey's book, 7 Habits for Highly Effective People, shows others how to learn various ways to improve the self. Particularly, Covey instructs readers on self-awareness and goal visualization. This essay will be talking about two of the seven habits.

Habit 1: Be Proactive -- Principles of Personal Visio. "While we are free to choose our actions, we are not free to choose the consequences of those actions. Consequences are governed by natural law. They are out in the Circle of Concern." (Covey 42) This part of Habit 1 was a very important snippet to take out because it shows that people as individuals have control over their actions, but do not have control over their environment or the consequences of their actions. They cannot help to be born with what they have in terms of genes of finances, but they can control how they will respond.

This goes well into the concept of self-care. Taking care of one's needs physically, mentally, and emotionally can lead to better decision making and skills managements. Many people often complain about depression and anxiety. This may stem from lack of money or companionship. People may say they feel lonely because they are scared to date. They may be scared to date because they are overweight.

These negative feelings can only change within the individual if they take care of themselves. This then leads to better consequences, which may result in better finances, good quality companions and friends, and a better overall outlook on life. Resiliency begins within the individual and habit one brings the concept of self-awareness into full swing. People often cannot make those important decisions towards better self-care like relying on intuition and getting proper nutrition, if they are not self-aware.

Becoming self-aware not only opens up new avenues of choices, but also opens up more control in the home front. The home front is the place one lives in, the people one interacts everyday with and see. When an individual becomes self-aware those negative patters and negative reactions can be better seen and understood, even stopped to support better interactions. People need to learn what to do that is best for them so they can lead a better life.

This kind of thinking translates to global awareness, global understanding, and multiculturalism. There are so many various kinds of people out there in the world. They exist in various settings, cultures, and observe various traditions. Learning about these things, cannot only help an individual develop better personal skills, but can also open up avenues for career development and leadership.

Leaders are often seen as those that are confident, understanding, communicative, and knowledgeable. When a person learns about the various things that exist in this world in terms of animal and human activity, that person can then translate to real world application. A good example of this is learning Mandarin Chinese. Millions of people speak this language every day. Learning and mastering such a popular language opens up career development as a translator, a teacher, even in business and marketing.

Skill development is crucial to career development. Skill development comes from self-care. Developing a healthy lifestyle and healthy habits lead to successful skill building and eventually, career development through job opportunities. Those that live a healthy lifestyle are more focused on what they want and what they want to do in their lives. Those that are focused tend to lead a healthy lifestyle. The two go hand-in-hand.

We find that individuals with an internal locus of control are more likely to eat well and exercise regularly. This link remains once controls are included for individuals' future orientation and the value they place on their health. Men with an internal locus of control seem to expect higher health returns to their investments in diet and exercise. In contrast, women with an internal locus of control appear to adopt healthy habits because they derive greater satisfaction from those activities than women with external control tendencies. (Cobb-Clark, Kassenboehmer and Schurer 1)

Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind TM is another of the habits explained by Steven Covey. This explains more about concepts like intuition and the "unconscious knowledge" we all as living beings possess as well as understanding what one wants to do in life and how to get there. "To Begin with the End in Mind means to start with a clear understanding of your destination." (Covey 46) It was earlier mentioned that a part of resiliency is intuition. This is true. People rely on intuition to spot danger and so forth. When one pictures the destination, one can start to analyze how it may be.