Earlier this I read, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Families by Stephen R. Covey. And, several times while reading I found myself thinking “the world would be a better place if all families aspired toward this.”
One principle, Dr. Covey explains is the Circle of Influence and the Circle of Concern.
The Circle of Concern is a large circle that embraces everything in your life that you may be concerned about. The Circle of Influence is a smaller circle within the Circle of Concern that embraces the things you can actually do something about.
Dr. Covey explains that we have a reactive tendency to focus on the Circle of Concern, which makes us upset and causes the Circle of Influence to get smaller. He says that we should focus our energy on the Circle of Influence and it will grow.
This makes perfect sense to me, because I do this all the time!
For example, it really concerns me that my 16-year old brother has 850 Instagram followers. I should be focusing on the Circle of Influence i.e. the meaningful relationship I’m trying to build with my brother.
He also explains the concept of emotional bank accounts. Check out his blog post on that concept here.
Image: Amazon
Summary
According to Amazon, the book is a practical and philosophical guide to solving the problems that confront all families and strong communities. By offering revealing anecdotes about ordinary people as well as helpful suggestions about changing everyday behavior, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Families shows how and why to have family meetings, the importance of keeping promises, how to balance individual and family needs, and how to move from dependence to interdependence. It is an invaluable guidebook to the welfare of families everywhere.
My Review
I loved this book, it is rather long at 362 pages. But the time you will invest reading it will pay dividends. I recommend that the head of the household read this book and share the concepts at family meetings or dinner. Each chapter concludes with a page on how to share the information with other adults and teens and a page on how to share the information with children.
Rating: I give this book two thumbs up!
Leave a Reply