I read "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" a couple years ago and really loved it. I recommend it to everyone no matter where you are in your life, especially young people. I've been meaning to read this since then and bought it about a year ago...finally got to it! I'm glad I did.
You'd think these books are for business people and they are written with that audience mainly in mind, but it is so much more than that. As a housewife, mother, homeschooler, and volunteer, I have really been able to put the principles related here into practice.
The idea is that our culture is changing, as all do over time, and we can change our way of thinking and reacting to our environment to get the most out of the time we have. It's positive, not your typical "if we just went back to older ways of thinking we'd be better off" idea. It's focused on self change instead of control. It is about our power to choose, extending that small space between stimulus and response. It's about cultivating natural authority and trust by modeling character, empowering others, and vision.
"I call this directed autonomy. The manager's role then shifts from controller to enabler - co-missioning with people, removing barriers, and becoming a source of help and support." Page 257
Exchange "manager" for "parent" and you have the perfect sentence that reflects how we choose to raise our kids, our principles summed up. We model excellence as best we can, empower them to follow their dreams, help them discover the vision of their future, and support them while they find their path. We listen, we encourage, we help. We don't control or demand. It's a relationship that I want to be mutual even after they are old enough to leave legally.
Loved this book! Go get it, but read 7 Habits first. It's the foundation of the 8th.
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