The 6 Most Important Decisions You’ll Ever Make: A Guide for Teens
MAKING SMART CHOICES IN CHALLENGING TIMES The challenges teens face today are tougher than at any time in history: academic stress, parent communication, media bombardment, dating drama, abuse, bullying, addictions, depression, and peer pressure, just to name a few. And, like it or not, the choices teens make while navigating these challenges can make or break their futures. In The 6 Most Important Decisions You’ll Ever Make, Sean Covey, author of the international bestseller The 7 Habits of
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The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens: The Ultimate Teenage Success Guide
- Step-by-step guide to making changes
- How to create action plans
- Building better relationships
- In two words: Assertiveness Training
- Written with humor and a youth friendly style
Being a teenager is both wonderful and challenging. In The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens, author Sean Covey applies the timeless principles of the 7 Habits to teens and the tough issues and life-changing decisions they face. In an entertaining style, Covey provides a step-by-step guide to help teens improve self-image, build friendships, resist peer pressure, achieve their goals, get along with their parents, and much more. In addition, this book is stuffed with cartoons, clever ideas, grea
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Sean Covey has come a long way…now he certainly stands taller than the old man with this new book!,
The 6 Most Important Decisions You’ll Ever Make: A Guide for Teens
by Sean Covey
I have always been impressed by the published works of Stephen Covey, starting with his ’7 Habits for Highly Effective People’ which I read in the late eighties, followed by ‘First Things First’ & ‘Principle-Centred Leadership’ around the mid-nineties. I have yet to read his ‘The 8th Habit’.
The most productive assimilative experiences for me from his success philosophies are essentially the first three habits (Be Proactive, Having the End in Mind, & First Things First) plus the last one (Sharpen the Saw).
Because of my work with teens, I came to appreciate also his son (Sean Covey)’s published works, mainly ’7 Habits for Highly Effective Teens’.
In my strategy consultancy work, plus creativity classes with adult professionals & training in the schools with secondary students, I often recommend ’7 Habits for Highly Effective People’ & ’7 Habits for Highly Effective Teens’ respectively as mandatory reading. The feedback I get from them is always tremendously positive.
I have come to know about Sean Covey’s new book quite by chance while surfing the net. I manage to grab a copy from my local bookstore.
The book is again targetted at a teen audience. In a nut shell, the principal theme of the book is how to make smart decisions for life’s journey from teeny hopper to adulthood. The book starts off with a timely refresher on the 7 Habits as well as a fun & cool experiment, The Ten Year Time Travel Experiment. It covers the six critical areas:
- school: what are you going to do about your education?;
- friends: what type of friends will you choose & what kind of friend will you be?;
- parents: are you going to get along with your parents?;
- dating & sex: who will you date & what will you do about sex?;
- addictions: – what will you do about smoking, drinking, drugs & other addictive stuff?;
- self-worth: will you choose to like yourself?;
Personally, I enjoyed digesting the following three specific chapters, which I thought have been superbly crafted by the author. They correspond to the above critical areas.
School:
Here, I find the ’7 Secrets to Getting Good Grades’ exposition, especially Secret #7: Developing Smart Study Habits, to be an excellent piece. I often like to recommend to students to read the author’s ’7 Habits for Highly Effective Teens’ & Adam Robinson’s ‘What Smart Students Know’ in conjunction with developing smart study habits.
The author goes beyond just schooling. I marvel at his graphic illustration of four important circles: each representing TALENT (what are you really good at?), PASSION (what do you love doing?), NEED (what does the world need that I can get paid to do?) & CONSCIENCE (what do I feel I should do?), overlapping each other as a process for finding your niche.
To me, finding your niche is doing what you love & loving what you do!
Parents:
The ‘Getting to Know You’ Questionnaire, with one for teens & one for parents, is a marvellous idea for creating the opportunity for teens to talk to their parents & vice versa.
I also like the author’s ‘Getting to Synergy Action Plan’, which is a five step process (with a built-in ‘First Seek to Understand’ & Think Win-Win’) for teens who want to resolve disagreements in a mature manner with their parents & vice versa. This is really good!
Self Worth:
The author makes a fine distinction between ‘self esteem’ & ‘self worth’. He says, “self esteem is your opinion of yourself. It goes by other names, including self image, self confidence or self respect.” He obviously prefers the term ‘self worth’ best because he thinks “it says something the other terms don’t. What is your self worth? Get it?”
There is even an appropriate quote to go with the above argument:
“Although how you esteem yourself may rise & fall, what you’re really worth never changes!”
The author even goes to the extent of using an inspiration from the L’Arc de Triomphe (The Arch of Triumph) in Paris to create his novel conception of ‘The Self Worth Arch of Triump. Bravo! An inspirational masterpiece!
This is how it looks like: On one side, the left side, you have the foundation stones of character:
- integrity;
- service;
- faith;
On the other side, the right side, you have the foundation stones of competence:
- talents & skills;
- accomplishments;
- physical health;
At the top you have the key stone, SMART DECISIONS or CHOICES, which holds the whole structure together. Wow! What a wonderful way to summarise the principal theme of the book & put all the pieces together at the end. The author argues, the smart decisions or choices you make will boost your self worth. Putting it…
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|Great gift for teens…,
I got this book for my 14 year old brother, and flipped through it before giving it to him. I was impressed with the style of writing, and the pictures/cartoons, which are fun and enthusiastic, but don’t seem childish. I bought several other copies to give to other teens that I know. My brother said that he really enjoyed the book. I wish I would have had a copy of this book when I was a young teen…there’s great information to help teens in any situation.
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|The 6 Most Important Decisions You’ll Ever Make,
This is the best book for young people I have ever read. Sean has shown amazing insite and has a unique way of relating to our young people.
For the last few weeks I have gathered my family and spent time reading this book to them and everyone has enjoyed it.
Thank you Sean for writing something that is helping kids and parents throughout the world
Sam Bracken
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|Teen Angst ?,
At the ripe age of 23, I borrowed my 18 year old brother’s copy of this book and was enthralled.I cant help but wonder what a difference this book would have made in my life if I had read it at age 14 and not ten years later. The layout of the book is fun and appeals to readers of any age. This makes it easier to read. One thing I have to say, is that this book is one of the most powerful positive thinking books on the market. Although it’s aimed at teens, the values and tips can apply to anyone. I loved the little excercises which are still applicable. Sean’s frankness on matters really inspired me. My favourite part of the book though is the real life stories he relates on how teenagers have overcome difficulties and still succeed in the end. A great read, highly recommended !
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|Love it or hate it… the choice is yours,
After reading through the reviews on this website and others on different websites I’ve come to this conclusion- either people think that it was (1)a fantastic book which distilled sound advice and changed their lives for the better [5 stars] or, (2)a bunch of cliched, useless material exhorting teens to be mama’s boy/ teacher’s pet/ goody-two-shoes/ (name your case)[1 star]. If there are people out there who haven’t read the book and are getting confused by all the conflicting, contradictory messages up on the web, I honestly don’t blame them. Who wouldn’t be?
I’ve read the book and all I can say is that the book does not deliver miracles from heaven that can brilliantly transform your life and make it oh-so-fabulous. It didn’t promise that either, by the way.
What it does is to offer tried-and-tested, reliable advice, the kind that your mother or teacher would have given you. Call it rehashed common sense, but the cartoons and quotes make it easier to digest and not-so-painful to internalise. Yes it’s naggy, yes it’s authoritarian, yes it’s condescending at some parts… I don’t doubt that. The thing is that in the end, it’s still well-intentioned, useful advice. It’s perfectly okay to just pick out one chapter, or one quote etc. that means something to you and ditch the rest. Really. Or if you really think that none of it can help you in your life, then take it as a few hours of harmless entertainment, forget about the book and get on with your life. Case closed.
As for those who haven’t read the book yet, give it a chance. You might just be able to pick up one or two things here and there which, when put into practice, may just make your life that little bit more sane and less messed-up. Best of luck to you.
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|7 Habits of Highly Effective Pre-Teens,
I read this book in 7th grade at the age of 12, and I loved it. I thought it was very well-written and witty.
Now, as a 19 year old, I recently finished rereading this book just because I found it as I was cleaning out my bookshelf, and I have to say…it’s not bad, but it’s not that good. I think, perhaps, as the author was aiming for a lower age bracket, he accidentally aimed a little too low.
Here’s my breakdown:
Pros:
– Book is much shorter than the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People yet still conveys the same ideas.
– The writing style is pretty straightforward.
– It offers a lot of examples from teens and a lot of illustrations.
Cons:
– Book becomes more and more condescending as it goes on.
– At some points, there are just too many examples, and many are rather impersonal–they don’t offer the kind of detail that would make a reader actually care. Some of the examples even contradict the Habits.
– A lot of the illustrations are kind of lame (I remember thinking this back at the age of 12, as well). The charts are fine, but most of the cartoons on the side just aren’t funny.
– The information in the book is all very intuitive.
I think I will read the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People to see how I feel about it. As for the 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens, I have to say…
1) Do not force a teen to read a self-help book. I’ve seen that in most of the negative comments, people were forced to read this book for a class in school. I think doing so even goes against the Habits. If you genuinely care about someone’s problems, maybe read through the Habits yourself and practice them. Then, you might be able to get your little friend to play along. This book is not that inspiring, and anyone who is forced to read it will easily find a thousand things ridiculous about it.
2) Although the book’s subject matter is intuitive, I agree that it is nice to be reminded of the right way to live your life and how to reach an “effective” life.
3) However…because of the book’s pseudo-spunky and somewhat condescending style, I see it gaining more acceptance among people right on the brink of teenagedom than actual teens. Pre-teens will probably get more of a kick out of reading a book for teens, and they may not notice the condescending writing since society has yet to tell them that they deserve to be treated as adults. There are points where Covey talks about eating disorders and suicide, but, as far as I can remember, middle schoolers have already been well introduced to these topics.
Conclusion:
This is not a good book for the people it was meant to help, but it would be a very good book for a slightly younger age group. That way, you have a better chance of getting through to them before the pressures start to pile on.
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