Ponderings in a corner of the universe

Able to respond (Response able, responsibility)

I've been reading Steven Covey's "7 habits of highly effective people" and its turning into nothing short of a revelation to me. My only criticism so far is the fact faith, religion and church have made their way into the text. Now I don't object to people's faith. I just like to read a book which is focused on the development of self in as unrestricted a paradigm format as possible - which if you read 7 habits will be slightly ironic due to the attention Covey draws to paradigms.

That said the religious element is minimal and is mentioned few and far between. It is a great book so far and is a fascinating read.

One of the core concepts of the book and a major factor to its first half (Personal Victory) is responsibility... Your ability to choose your response. Response able. Able to respond. It separates the 'cause' and 'effect' of situational, genetic, hereditary impulse responses from the stimulus by calling out the 'freedom to choose'. Using the example of Frankl, a Jewish man in a German death camp and how he managed to maintain a personal freedom beyond his prison. I wanted to call it out here for 2 reasons;

1) the word's breakdown is fasicnating and helps really identify what the word means
2) As per David Bohm's writing many words have 'lost' their true meaning and people don't really pay that much attention (myself included) on what words 'really' mean. Many more complex or meaning laden words can be broken down into parts which call our what their roots are and this breaking down helps illustrate both what they mean and the mandala of words for what they mean for the human brain. Note: Many words, inc. shorter more common words this isn't clear for and to understand their roots and meaning you must delve back much further... With English to Latin and further. David Bohm covers this much better than I do and I can recommend his book Wholeness and the Implicate order;

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0415289793/pd_ka_0/026-2010337-7834807

His other books 'On dialogue' and the Limits of Thought explore these concepts in more detail. Its very much about how the human brain works and what language really means for thought. Reading it I personally felt like a child again due to the broadness of concepts and ideas it raised which were areas that were vast tracts for opportunity to learn in :-)

All in all I recommend the book.

posted by Matthew Woodget @ 8:03 AM