The 7 Habits Of Highly Effective Teens [Paperback]

I've noticed that most of the reviews for this book give it either 1 star or 5 stars, but very few people seem to have mixed feelings about this book like I do. First of all, I think that "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens" is both very powerful and well-written. It contains some very helpful advice that will come in handy some time or another in your life. However, some of the advice, such as the Relationship Bank Account, is easier said than done. I felt that many of Sean Covey's suggestions were facile in the sense that they were not things that I would do in real life. Covey seems to think that in order to have a good relationship with someone, you need to always be fishing for a compliment or nice thing to say. But in real life, "effective" people have a positive attitude, but aren't necessarily always dishing out compliments. People who over-compliment aren't always liked by everyone! Another thing about this book is that it should not be read in one sitting. I would say that it is best read about 5 minutes at a time... read one section, then put it down for the day and focus on implimenting that one section in your daily life. When you read several sections at a time, you tend to forget what you read at the beginning and you would definately have a hard time putting the first few habits to work in your life. Take the time to fill out all of the activities such as the "Baby Steps" sections in order to really help you put the book into practice. Lastly, I want to say that since reading this book, my life hasn't changed all that much. I'm not more effective... I'm not liked more or liked less. One thing that I found when I read the book was that I was already trying to do many of the things mentioned! I've tried putting some of the other habits into practice, but I fail to see how they are improving the quality of my life. If you're happy with your life as it is, I would pass on this book... the content person does not need self-help. But if you're not happy with your life or if you want to become a more positive person, you'll probably find this book very helpful. One last note... older teens would probably get more out of the "adult" version, "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People", since Covey uses language that is overly simple and trite at times, but the principles of both books are exactly the same.

Well, let me tell you where I am coming from before I start the actual review. I am 16 years old and I have two good hardworking parents that are always pushing me to be more "active" and join school sports and stuff like that. Well, not only do I hate playing sports, but I don't really relate to many of my peers so when my parents force me to play some sport or join some club I really hate it on more than one level. I don't merely hate being the worst on the team, I hate having to sit there and socialize with my peers also.

The organizational part of the book didn't do me a ton of good, basically because I am pretty well organized and I turn in all of my school work ext. Basically the reason I got this book was to read about the "comfort zone" and things of that sort, so possibly I could be motivated to like some of the activities my parents have forced me in to.

Some of the stuff I read in here is inspirational, and it helps me survive those practices/meetings that I really don't want to be at at all. This book never did actually make me LIKE these parental-forced ordeals, but again, the book helps me survive.

Downfalls? Well, there is alot of teen language in this book which is okay for the normal teen, but for me personally it gets on my nerves after awhile. Also, it is very difficult to read this book from cover to cover, but I cannot say for sure it is one of those books designed to be read that way. The book was only partially beneficial to me because of my extreme circumstances, but maybe if you like your peers a little more than I do, you'll get more out of it. "7 Habits" helped me out to an extent, and I am grateful for owning a copy of it

One star is FAR too much. This book is awful. I could not even get through it. It's suppossed to be helpful, but it actually lowered my self-esteem. Covey trys too hard to do this right, and he puts in all the wrong things. Why tell us what we're doing wrong? That's how you lower someone's self-image. Why tell us not to react? If you don't react in some way to everything, then you're not really alive. Overall, it's just terrible and pointless. My mom got this for me for my birthday. She wasted her money, and I wasted my time.