Stephen Covey and his Seven Habits -- Is Comfort the Goal

It seems to me that often our society pushes the notion that comfort is the ultimate Good in life. This is a sentiment that many hold, whether they realize it or not, that is pushed by advertising and marketing strategies, but that goes largely unexamined.

Covey suggests however that comfort, or pleasure, or self in general, is not a worthy goal, but that instead that it is principles that should be the focus of our lives.

This is surely not to say that no pleasurable emotions, or feelings of comfort, should be allowed to guide our decisions; on the contrary, it could be argued that, when we arrive at a decision that seems "right", there is often a requirement that we feel "comfortable" or "at peace" with that decision.

The key point, however, is that comfort should not be the GOAL of life; it perhaps should be A goal, but there is so much misery in the world that kind-hearted people with good conscience can do a lot to alleviate, simply making our own personal comfort our objective is unworthy of who we are as human beings.

Stephen Covey Seven Habits: What Motivates Us According to Stephen Covey

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Stephen Covey and his Seven Habits movement, or theory, is worth taking seriously. By this I do not of course mean accepting slavishly: I mean taking a look at what he says, and deciding for yourself whether what you think jibes with the ideas of Covey.

Covey is very interested in what motivates us. Another way of saying this is: What is important to us?

Of course this is a wide question. Clearly we operate in so many domains, we are relatives, lovers, neighbours, workers, members of associations, members of a political society, consumers, and so on. Even if you live in the jungles of Papua New Guinea, I think we can still apply all of these labels to you: Man (and Woman!) has a set of universal experiences.

Covey handles this problem of the complexity of an individual life by suggesting we split the way we see ourselves up into "roles" (much like I have just done in the previous paragraph). ONLY THEN should we turn to focusing on goals.

Covey suggests we write down the roles we see ourselves as possessing. You might be the member of a mosque; you might be the member of the community of Madison, Wisconsin; you might be a father; a son; a neighbour; a steel construction worker, and so on. In short, write down the roles that you see as most important to you, that you fulfil.

Once you have done this, identify some key goals you would like to achieve in each of these areas.

This, then, is the process of clearing up what MOTIVATES US. That is, find out what roles we see as most important for us, then identify some key goals in each of these areas. By the end of the exercise, you should have a much clearer idea of the targets you would like to aim at, in other words, be much more sure of what it is that may be motivating you... This sort of exercise lies at the heart of the work of Stephen Covey.

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