• Sharpen the Saw means preserving and enhancing the greatest asset you have—YOU. It means having a balanced program for self-renewal in the four areas of your life: physical, social/emotional, mental, and spiritual.

• Most people listen with the intent to reply, not to understand. You listen to yourself as you prepared in your mind what you are going to say, the questions you are going to ask, etc. You filter everything you hear through your life experiences, your frame of reference.

What are “first things?” First things are those things you find of most worth. If you put first things first, you are organizing and managing time and events according to the personal priorities.

• Proactive people work on the things they can do something about.

• Begin With the End in Mind is based on the principle that all things are created twice. There is a mental (first) creation, and a physical (second) creation.

• Most of us learn to base our self-worth on comparisons and competition. We think about succeeding in terms of someone else failing—if I win, you lose; or if you win, I lose. Life becomes a zero-sum game. We all play the game, but how much fun is it really?

• To put it simply, synergy means “two heads are better than one.” Synergize is the habit of creative cooperation.

1. Be proactive