Much of our world is gripped with a sense of fear and insecurity—fear of losing jobs, homes, or our future. In such a state of insecurity and vulnerability, it is easy to see why people might resign to being in survival mode and looking out only for themselves, at home, at work or in the community. In this environment people tend to respond by being more and more independent. The mindset becomes: “I’m going to focus on ‘me and mine.’

Certainly, independence is vital; however, the problem is that we live in an interdependent reality. Our most important work, the problems we hope to solve or the opportunities we hope to realize require working and collaborating with other people in a high-trust, synergistic way—whether at home or at work. Having an interdependent mindset, skills and tools are vital, especially now as we work through challenges unlike anything most of us have ever seen in our life time.

The principles found in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People are all about helping people learn how to understand and build interdependence. The more you really understand and practice the habits, the more you will build the core skills and character necessary to successfully respond to the many challenges that will inevitably come your way. As a result, you will be able to manage your fears and insecurities, and take charge of your life—which, in turn, can reduce your fears and insecurities.

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If you or someone you know is looking for a job, I would like to share a couple thoughts to help you find new work. One of the things I often tell people is that you can’t do a job-search the way you used to. Most people rely on a job application form and a resume. That doesn’t work anymore, although, those are useful things. In today’s world you have to adopt a new mindset for finding and securing a job—and not just a job but work that you would find meaningful.

The new mindset is: be a solution, not a problem to a prospective employer. When you call or submit your resume, it likely goes into a pile with perhaps hundreds of other resumes or applications. This is a problem for the employer; you are one more person they have to deal with.

However, what if you took the time to really research the company you want to work? Read up about what’s going right now in the company. Find someone you might know to talk to about what they’re dealing with and what they’re trying to accomplish. If you don’t know someone, make a call to find someone willing to spend a few minutes with you. Network with their suppliers or one of their clients to get a better understanding of the company, department or person you want to work for. Between the Internet and networking, you can piece together a picture of what would be of specific value to them. From there you can see if your experience, talent, skills, and passion match up to what they need. Now you can creatively position yourself as a solution and differentiate yourself. Get a conversation started in the company by presenting yourself as a solution to their problems not as a person looking for a job.

The tougher things get the more creative and solution-oriented you have to become. Be a solution, not a problem—and you’ll significantly increase your ability to land a new job.

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The beginning of a new year is an exciting time—it’s a time for reflection and a time for looking forward. As many of you are making New Year’s resolutions, I would like to share some thoughts for how you can best succeed with achieving them. Far too many of us know that it’s easy making resolutions but it’s far more challenging not breaking them.

My first advice is to start small. Choose something small you can start doing now that will help you achieve a bigger goal or resolution. For example, if your goal is to get healthy or lose weight think of some thing you can promise to keep. You can decide to wake up a little earlier to organize your day to allow some exercise or decide to drink more water during the day and cut out unhealthy drinks. The main thing is to make a promise to yourself and keep it. When you make a promise and keep it you will find yourself grow in self-assurance and confidence. The more successful you are with making and keeping promises to yourself, the more you will be able to make and keep promises to others.

Again, start small and create a private victory. You can build on this with other small promises and enlarge your victory until you establish healthy habits for your life. Make a promise and keep it.

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am now 76 years old and could easily retire. But I’m not retired and I don’t plan to retire. I don’t believe in retirement. Why people ask me? Simply, I have a life motto. It is: Live life in crescendo!

Living life in crescendo to me means that my most important work is always ahead of me, never behind me. I believe that “where much is given, much is required.” I have a sacred stewardship to contribute and not to retire to leisure. Also, the greatest way to serve my 50 grandkids is not just to love them and tend to their interests and needs, but to be an example of someone who is constantly making a difference in the world.

Start living your life in crescendo–and remember your most important work is ahead of you, not behind you! There is so much more to do, to learn and contribute.

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I am often asked if there is one habit out of the 7 Habits that is more important than the others. Of course, all the habits are important and they form an inter-connected whole or a continuum. For maximum effectiveness, you have to build from one to the other and apply them consistently. From that perspective, Habit 1: Be Proactive provides the foundation for all the other habits. Habit 1 is, undoubtedly, the foundation for leadership at home or at work because it begins with the mindset “I am responsible for me, and I can choose.”All the other habits are dependent upon being proactive and choosing to master and practicing principle-centered living.

The key to being proactive is remembering that between stimulus and response there is a space. That space represents our choice— how we will choose to respond to any given situation, person, thought or event. Imagine a pause button between stimulus and response—a button you can engage to pause and think about what is the principle-based response to your given situation. Listen to what your conscience tells you. Listen for what is wise and the principle-based thing to do, and then act.

Being proactive (Habit 1) becomes much more powerful when connected and related to the other habits. The key to the habits is the power of their combined synergy and meaningful purpose. Leaving one habit out is like having a four-legged chair—when you remove one leg the chair is out of balance.

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We are warned more and more about the threat of identify theft. However, the greater identify theft is our cultural DNA; it’s not someone taking your wallet and using your credit cards—that’s very superficial. It’s about the profound identity threat that comes from people being raised in a comparison-based culture, so they focus more on secondary greatness, to become rich and famous, rather than primary greatness, which deals with character and contribution. This switch to secondary greatness is alluring and occurs throughout cultures of the world—secondary greatness has replaced primary greatness, and, as a result,  trust has deteriorated, confidence has gone down, and we’re living with its consequences, as evidenced by the global financial crisis.

So it’s a healthy thing to be humbled by this or any other crisis, to realize that we have to take an inside-out approach in learning to be humble, to focus on integrity and character and on making a contribution, to serve other people, and serve worthwhile causes. How is the crisis affecting you? Are you focusing your efforts on strengthening your primary greatness—your character and ability for contribution? Set a goal to make a difference for someone else at work, at home, in your neighborhood, or community. The more you focus on serving others, the more authentic you will feel; your character strength will grow, you will be build trust, and you will build your worth based on principles versus on the need to gratify our cultural values, which often center on instant gratification and becoming an enviable figure in public. This will help to prevent your identify theft and help you resist your negative cultural DNA.

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When examining the great losses we’re seeing in the global financial crisis, one thing is very clear: one of the greatest losses we feel is broken trust. But all is not lost. It is a challenging path and a time consuming one, but trust can be re-built and restored.

In any given situation, both personal and in professional life, I think that the process of restoring trust can be an enormously positive adventure because you can redeem yourself and create newness. For example, when you have a broken relationship with someone, you have to learn to acknowledge your role in it, apologize, and  have humility. Then you need to find a way to involve the person in a process of coming up with a new relationship.

I sometimes use the metaphor of an Emotional Bank Account. Like a financial bank account, you can make deposits and take withdrawals from the account. When you make consistent deposits, out of your integrity and out of your empathy—that means your understanding of what deposits and withdrawals are to other people—those two things—empathy and integrity—that little by little you can restore trust.

Think of your own crisis you may dealing with—perhaps a broken trust at work or at home or with a friend—and think of how you can restore trust in the relationship. Examine your Emotional Bank Account with this person; it’s most likely strained because of withdrawals. Make a commitment to start making deposits that matter most to that person, and do it. Little by little, even with small deposits, you will find that the account will grow. It may take time. But over time you will find the cumulative effect of the deposits. Slowly, depending on the severity of the broken trust, you can find trust being re-built and restored, and new relationship will be born. Of course, this also depends on the other person, but you can choose to do your part regardless of the other person—to focus on your circle of influence. And you will find some peace, knowing that you’ve done your part.

Reach out to someone today with whom you have a strained relationship or someone whose relationship needs strengthening. Make a deposit in their Emotional Bank Account…and commit to continuing the deposits. And don’t forget making deposits in your strong, high-trust relationships—it’s what keeps them strong! Enjoy the adventure!

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Last week, Dr. Covey did an interview for a leading newspaper in Brazil. Not surprisingly, the topic of the interview was the global financial crisis and the concerns of these uncertain times. When asked to comment about this historic financial meltdown Dr. Covey first stated: “This is a time of great crisis. Crisis creates humility–pain humbles people.” Because of this, he explained, people often become more open and teachable.

Dr. Covey is planning a visit to Brazil in a few weeks where he will teach principles of effective leadership. He expects that business leaders in the audience will be especially attentive to the message for developing principle-centered leadership in a global marketplace where conditions are changing and creating new challenges. Of course, with new challenges comes new opportunities. Whether in good times or bad times, the key to great leadership is understanding moral authority versus formal authority. A leader’s role is to communicate the worth and potential of individuals so clearly that they are inspired to see it in themselves–to help them unleash their potential and respect people as an organization’s greatest asset rather than seeing them as an expense. Moral authority comes from being centered on principles, which are universal and timeless. Principles such as, fairness, trust, integrity, compassion, honesty are central to enduring leadership–both at work, at home, or in the community.

In reflecting on Dr. Covey’s words, I think Dr. Covey would challenge each of us to humble ourselves–to seek for more understanding, openness, synergy, learning, purpose, and self-reflection. Each of us is a leader–either in our roles at work, at home or in our individual, personal lives. Are we humble enough to center our lives on principles? Are we willing to learn the lessons that are before us and change our lives based on universal principles that are sure to create stability  and sustainability for us, even in turbulent times? Now is the time to humble ourselves, make profound changes and take full advantage of the opportunities that come from  of crises.

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We are in the midst of a global financial crisis that has everyone worried for today and the future. This is evidence of:  (1) the net effect of the law of the harvest: we, as individual consumers, business leaders, and government leaders simply cannot stray from timeless principles and expect to avoid the inevitable consequences; (2) the reality of global markets and economies and how tightly knit we all are around the world; (3) the reality that we live in a world that is changing at a rate unthinkable only a few years ago or even months ago; (4) there being only one constant in the midst of turbulent change: principles.

In these especially difficult, uncertain times, the need is to develop a solid unwavering core. When we adopt changeless, timeless principles such as trust, fairness, service, courage, humility, integrity, human dignity, contribution, growth, empowerment, as our core values, we anchor and enable ourselves to adapt and respond to the forces of change and the new dynamics of the global economy.

I suggest this is also a time of opportunity. Make time to take an inventory of your life, to determine your values, to focus on what matters most and let go of the dead weight of things that matter least—the things that distract us and lead us on the wrong path. Each of your concerns and situations is different, but here is a thought for action:

1. Think of one area of your work or personal life that is in a constant state of change—perhaps one that brings with it great stress.
2. Identify any principles that can be a source of guidance or stability in the situation.
3. Using these bedrock principles, consider what choices you can make to adapt to the onslaught of change.

I wish you well and hope you will find encouragement through principle-centered living and leadership, especially when faced with this global financial challenge and your personal or professional challenges.

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This week, the Stephen Covey Community is letting you ask Stephen the questions you’ve always wanted to.

Within the “Ask Dr.Covey” area of the site, you can submit questions for Dr. Covey to answer and view questions asked by other community members. You can also vote on questions that you think are best by clicking on the Vote button.

The 10 questions with the highest number of “thumbs up” votes will posed to Dr. Covey during his next video shoot at the end of the month.

To join the fun join or login to the Stephen Covey Community and click on the “Ask Stephen” ink on your dashboard.
Here are some of the most popular questions so far:

1. Dr. Covey, Is there such a thing as The Law of Attraction and if there isn’t, why does it sometimes feel like there is? Thank you

2. Please tell us what was the greatest mistake you have ever made and what did you learn from it?

3. How can I listen empathically with out judgments getting in the way?

4. What is the most effective way to stay on track with your mission when dealing with everyday communications? I understand that the planning tools assist however I was wondering if there is a internal way to mentally train your mind to act according to your mission. Something to help avoid emotional stress and reactivity to society’s everyday drama.

5. How does someone who tries to live by the character ethic deal with an organization that rewards those that live by personality ethics?

Thank you for your participation!

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