Quote

You have to decide what your highest priorities are and have the courage—pleasantly, smilingly, nonapologetically, to say “no” to other things. And the way you do that is by having a bigger “yes” burning inside. The enemy of the “best” is often the “good.

Stephen Covey

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Stephen Covey
Age: 79 †
Born: 1932
Born: October 24
Died: 2012
Died: July 16
Author
Businessperson
Professor
Writer
Salt Lake City
Utah
Stephen Richards Covey
Enemy
Burning
Often
Decide
Inspirational
Bigger
Change
Highest
Best
Motivational
Way
Courage
Good
Inside
Pleasantly
Things
Trust
Priorities

More quotes by Stephen Covey

Image
Link yourself to your potential, not to your past.
Stephen Covey
Image
The bottom line is, when people are crystal clear about the most important priorities of the organization and team they work with and prioritized their work around those top priorities, not only are they many times more productive, they discover they have the time they need to have a whole life.
Stephen Covey
Image
We can act instead of being acted upon.
Stephen Covey
Image
Opposition is a natural part of life. Just as we develop our physical muscles through overcoming opposition - such as lifting weights - we develop our character muscles by overcoming challenges and adversity.
Stephen Covey
Image
When one side benefits more than the other, that's a win-lose situation. To the winner it might look like success for a while, but in the long run, it breeds resentment and distrust.
Stephen Covey
Image
Keeping a personal journal a daily in-depth analysis and evaluation of your experiences is a high-leverage activity that increases self-awareness and enhances all the endowments and the synergy among them.
Stephen Covey
Image
I am not a product of my circumstances. I am a product of my decisions.
Stephen Covey
Image
We must look at the lens through we see the world, as well as the world we see, and that the lens itself shapes how we interpret the world.
Stephen Covey
Image
It's not what people do to us that hurts us. In the most fundamental sense, it is our chosen response to what they do to us that hurts us.
Stephen Covey
Image
Interdependency follows independence.
Stephen Covey
Image
When we look through the lens of each others' weaknesses, we make others' strengths irrelevant and their weaknesses more evident.
Stephen Covey
Image
We all go through stages. Concerns about appearances, making good impressions, being popular, comparing yourself to others, having unbridled ambition, wanting to make money, striving to be recognized and noticed and trying to establish yourself, all fade as your responsibilities and character grow.
Stephen Covey
Image
A moment of choice is a moment of truth. It's the testing point of our character and competence.
Stephen Covey
Image
I see myself living by correct principles and accomplishing worthy purposes. One of my favorite quotes is, The greatest battles of life are fought out every day in the silent chambers of one's own soul. (David O. McKay).
Stephen Covey
Image
This is the single most powerful investment we can ever make in life—investment in ourselves, in the only instrument we have with which to deal with life and to contribute.
Stephen Covey
Image
But until a person can say deeply and honestly, I am what I am today because of the choices I made yesterday, that person cannot say, I choose otherwise.
Stephen Covey
Image
When we say that leadership is a choice, it basically means you can choose the level of initiative you want to exercise in response to the question, ‘What is the best I can do under the given circumstances?’
Stephen Covey
Image
You can buy a person's hands but you can't buy his heart. His heart is where his enthusiasm, his loyalty is.
Stephen Covey
Image
Success comes from the ability to view each arising problem as an opportunity for self improvement.
Stephen Covey
Image
When we listen with the intent to understand others, rather than with the intent to reply, we begin true communication and relationship building. Opportunities to then speak openly and to be understood come much more naturally and easily.
Stephen Covey