This book review was written by one of our teen members. The review is remarkable since it is by a teen for the teens. The firsthand perspective is what makes it so striking…so read on!

Teens everywhere are stressed with the regular issues in life, such as: how to find good friends, how to get good grades at school, and how to deal with family issues. It is hard for teens to juggle family, school, friends and various extracurricular activities.

“The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens” book, written by Sean Covey, focuses on seven important skills or principles that teens could base their life on. The book teaches many lessons such as how to prioritize, how to agree with other people, how to get in the habit of doing things the right way, how to make reasonable goals, and how to always focus on what you want to achieve.

The book starts off with a “set up”, which introduces the 7 habits and encourages you to get in the habit of doing things the right way. It also encourages you to set principles for yourself and follow them. This section is particularly important as we all sometimes slack off; everyone has at least once cut an angle in a race or pretended to be sick to get more attention. The first habit, “Be proactive”, encourages you to take responsibility in your own life. For example, if you earn a bad grade, do not blame it on your parents, teacher or pets, look at this situation as an opportunity to improve. The second habit “Begin with the end in mind”, allows you to set reasonable goals for yourself and take necessary steps to accomplish them. The third habit, “Put first thing first”, teaches you to prioritize. It defines four different quadrants with different characteristics such as the procrastinator, the prioritizer, the “yes man”, and the slacker. Everyone can be characterised more by one of the quadrants. The book encourages and gives you directions to become the prioritizer. The fourth habit teaches a lifelong lesson, which will become helpful to everyone no matter what their future beholds. The author calls this habit “Think win-win”. It focuses on finding a solution to any problem that brings value to all interested parties. The fifth habit, “Seek first to understand, then to be understood”, means that we should listen more and talk less. As we only have one mouth and two ears, we have to listen twice as much as we talk. The next habit, “Synergise”, elaborates on teamwork and how to help other people. Finally, the last habit, “Sharpen the saw”, describes how to take care of yourself both mentally and physically.

The author actually got the idea of writing this book from his father, Stephen Covey, who wrote the book “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People”. Unlike Stephen Covey’s book, Sean wrote this book in a creative and appealing way which reaches out directly to teenagers by adding cartoons, clever ideas, great quotes, and incredible stories about real teens from all over the world.

A Book Review

by Oleg Pevzner