From School Library Journal
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Review
"This book will prepare teens to handle the pressure and make the right universal big decisions right now." -- Peyton Manning, quarterback, Indianapolis Colts, two-time NFL MVP, six-time Pro Bowler
"As hard as it is not to be biased, I can say without reservation that this is one remarkable book! The writing is entertaining and inspirational. A definite must-read for teens, and all those who raise, teach, and lead them." -- Stephen R. Covey, author of the #1 bestseller The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
"From one mother to another, I highly recommend that if you want a better future for your teens, you must have them read this book!" -- Candace Lightner, founder, Mothers Against Drunk Driving
"This book is perfectly written. I want all 74,000 students in our district to read it as well as their parents and all 6,000 teachers. I am trying to figure out how to make it required reading for all teens in Nashville." -- Pedro Garcia, Ed.D. educational administration; superintendent, Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools
"It's a rare thing to find such an innovative and inspirational book all rolled into one." -- Larry King
Book Description
MAKING SMART CHOICES IN CHALLENGING TIMES
The challenges teens face today are tougher than at any time in history: academic stress, parent communication, media bombardment, dating drama, abuse, bullying, addictions, depression, and peer pressure, just to name a few. And, like it or not, the choices teens make while navigating these challenges can make or break their futures.
In The 6 Most Important Decisions You'll Ever Make, Sean Covey, author of the international bestseller The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens, gives teens the strong advice they need to make informed and wise decisions.Using real stories from teens around the world, Sean shows teens how to succeed in school, make good friends, get along with parents, wisely handle dating and sex issues, avoid or overcome addictions, build self-esteem, and much more. Jam-packed with original cartoons, inspiring quotes, and fun quizzes, this innovative book will help teens not only survive but thrive during their teen years and beyond.
Building upon the legacy of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens, this is an indispensable resource for teens everywhere.
About the Author
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Call me Sean.
I'm the author and I'm glad you're here. Don't worry. This won't be another boring book. This one's different. It's written just for teens and deals with your life, your problems, your stuff. It also has a lot of great cartoons (I had to hire several artists and pay them a fortune because I can't draw worth squat.)
This book is about one idea. I'll get straight to the point.
There are six key decisions you make during your teen years that can make or break your future. So, choose wisely, and don't blow it.
If you do happen to blow it, however, it's not the end of the world. Just get back on track quickly and start making smarter choices.
Being a teen today is tougher than ever. While your grandparents may have had to walk uphill to school in the snow, you have a different set of challenges to navigate: like media overload, party drugs, Internet porn, date rape, terrorism, global competition, depression, and heavy peer pressure. It's a totally different world!
Although I still shoot spit wads, I'm no longer a teen, but I vividly remember the ups and downs I went through. Most of my problems began at birth. My dad said, "Sean, when you were born your cheeks were so fat the doctor didn't know which end to spank." He wasn't kidding. You should see my baby pictures. My cheeks hung off my face like water balloons. You can imagine how often I was teased.
Once I was with all the neighborhood kids jumping on our trampoline. We were playing a game of add-on and it was my turn. Susan, my neighbor, couldn't resist saying what everyone was thinking, "Man, look at Sean's bouncing cheeks. They're so fat."
David, my younger brother, in an effort to defend me said, "They're not fat. They're muscle."
His valiant effort backfired, and everyone got a kick out of my new nickname, "Muscle Cheeks."
My problems continued into junior high school. I hated seventh grade and have chosen to forget most of it. I do remember that I still had fat cheeks and an eighth grader named Scott kept trying to pick a fight with me. I don't know why he picked on me. I'd never met the guy. Maybe it was because he was confident he could pound me. He'd wait in the hallway with a couple of his friends and challenge me to a fight every day after my algebra class. I was petrified and tried to stay away from him.
One day he cornered me.
"Hey, Covey. You big fat sissy. Why don't you fight me?"
"I dunno."
He then slugged me in the stomach real hard, knocking my breath out. I was too scared to fight back. He left me alone after that. But I was humiliated and felt like a loser. (By the way, I'm bigger than Scott now and I'm still looking for him. Kidding!)
As I began high school, to my pleasant surprise, my face grew into my cheeks, but a new set of problems arose. Suddenly I had to make a lot of important decisions that I wasn't ready for. During the first week, I was invited to join a club with seniors who drank a lot. I didn't want to join but I also didn't want to offend them. I started to make new friends. Then, there were all these new girls. One even started liking me. She was pretty and aggressive and it was exciting and scary all at once. I had so many questions. Should I like this girl? Who should I hang out with? What classes should I take? Should I go to that party? How can I juggle school, sports, and friends?
I didn't realize it at the time, but these were some of the most important decisions I'd ever make in my life.
The idea for this book started when I sent out surveys to hundreds of teens from all over and asked, "What are your biggest challenges?" Here's what a few of them said:
"Dealing with sexuality. I have to be able to make the right choices now so that I don't have to live with my mistakes later. It seems like if you're not having sex when you're a teenager, then you're a prude or something." "Parents. I have to deal with them every day and it's exhausting." "School and grades. My mom screams at me." "Preparing for college. It's right around the corner and I haven't really given it much thought. Every time I try to think about it, I just end up getting a huge headache, so I don't." "Divorce of my parents. They always fight over who gets visitation." "High-school drama. Who's going out with who? Popularity. Best hair. Most athletic. Who's got money? Who said this about them? It's ridiculous!" "Money. Barely enough money to live." "Peer pressure is a major problem. I give in really easy, with the right people." "I worry about the safety of my family because you can walk the streets and get killed. Most people are not going to school just to do drugs. I fear for my lil' brother and sister." "Body and appearance. I struggle with my weight all the time." "Friends. They are just bugging the heck out of me. I don't relate to them anymore. They ignore me and stay in their little cliques. I feel excluded, so lately I have just been staying away from them." "Dating. I don't date whatsoever and here I am at 17. My friends dog me and make me feel like I'm not doing something I should." "Body and appearance. I struggle with my weight all the time." "Stress. Trying to fit everything in is my number one challenge because I have a lot on my plate."
I carefully studied all the surveys I got back. I also interviewed numerous teens from various locations over a three-year period. And a pattern began to emerge. Out of the 999 different challenges that were mentioned, six stood out above all the rest.
As I looked deeper, I discovered that with each challenge there was a choice (or series of choices) to be made. Some teens I interviewed had made smart choices; others, dumb ones. As a result, some were happy and some messed up. These challenges represented fork-in-the-road decisions and the consequences were huge. It became clear that what you do about these challenges are the six most important decisions you'll ever make as a teen!
The Six Most Im portant Decisions You'll Ever Make
- School. What are you going to do about your education?
- Friends. What type of friends will you choose and what kind of
- friend will you be?
- Parents. Are you going to get along with your parents?
- Dating and Sex. Who will you date and what will you do about sex?
- Addictions. What will you do about smoking, drinking, drugs,
- and other addictive stuff?
- Self-Worth. Will you choose to like yourself?
You may not have thought much about these decisions. Or you may be struggling with one of them or all of them. Whatever your situation, you need to learn all you can about each decision, the ins and outs, the good and bad, so that you can make informed decisions, with your eyes wide open. You don't want to get down the road and find yourself saying, "If only I'd known better."
Many decisions you make as a teen can impact your life forever. In his book Standing for Something, religious leader Gordon B. Hinckley tells this story about when he was young:
While working in a Denver railroad office, I was in charge of the baggage and express traffic carried in passenger trains. One day I received a call from my counterpart in New Jersey who said that a passenger train had arrived without its baggage car. Three hundred patrons were angry, as well they had a right to be.
We discovered that the train had traveled from Oakland, California, to St. Louis, where a switchman had mistakenly moved a piece of steel just three inches. That piece of steel was a switch point, and the baggage car that should have been in Newark was in New Orleans, fourteen hundred miles away.
Prisons all over the world are filled with people who made unwise and even destructive choices, individuals who moved a switch point in their lives just a little and were soon on the wrong track going to the wrong place.
Each of these six decisions is like a switch point, a small three-inch piece of steel that will lead us down the right or wrong track for hundreds of miles.
A Tale Of Two Teens
Imagine two 19-year-old girls about to graduate from teenagehood. At age 13, they were in similar situations. At 19, they are in very different places, because of their choices.
Meet Allie. She smiles a lot. She is attending a local university and has two great roommates; they have a riot together. Allie has a tuition scholarship, and also works part time as a teacher's assistant. She plans to graduate in two years with a degree in English and become a teacher. Allie is dating two different guys right now, but isn't really serious with either yet. Throughout her teen years, she didn't date much and felt a little insecure about it, but she's proud that she didn't sleep around with every other guy. She hopes to meet a wonderful guy and get married someday.
At fifteen, Allie tried drugs once but, afterward, realized how stupid it was. Since then, except for an occasional glass of wine, Allie doesn't drink, smoke, or do drugs. She's free of addictions. Every Sunday night, Allie calls her mom, whom she calls her "best friend." Although she has problems, overall, she is confident, goal-driven, and happy with herself.
Meet Desiree. She is strikingly beautiful but suffers from low self-esteem. When asked why, she replies, "I don't know. It's just that I'm always thinking I'm fat and ugly."
Desiree started smoking when she was fourteen and smokes two packs a day now. She claims she could quit tomorrow.
She works full-time at a grocery store making minimum wage. Although she completed high school, she never really tried in school and doesn't see a need to get more education. She lives in an apartment by herself and has various live-in boyfriends. During high-school, ...
