blog.erik.rainey.name

I'm currently listening to "The 8th Habit" by Stephen Covey, a follow-up to his original title, "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People". I originally began to read the first book when I was in high school during my time in Boy Scouts, before I got my Eagle Scout (which is a whole other discussion in achievement under false pretenses that I only now realize). However I stopped for one reason or another and never picked it up again. I recently found the book on Audible.com and having run out of other things to listen to with my monthly subscription I decided to give him a shot. Mr. Covey's book is a semi-rational approach to learning how to be a more effective person; how to train yourself to become what you want to be. I'd say that 60% of what he says I would agree with little modification (mostly by using more precise terminology that I can only assume he did not use in order to remain accessible to the general populace). For another 20% I'd say that I agree with it but for completely different reasons, sometimes the opposite reasons that he states. And finally there's another 20% that I think is too far into a mystical notion of the universe, stemming from Mr. Covey's religious background, for me to relate to, much less understand (i.e. his idea of "connecting with the infinite"). For the 20% that I agree with but for other reasons that he states, I feel he suffers from not having a consistent perspective on his issues. At the same time he talks about free will and choice he quotes famous people who make statements to the opposite. He is a religious man, as I mentioned before, which places him in the groupings with the "mystics". How one can synthesize the pre-determinism of deities (i.e. God's Divine Plan) and free will and choice, I don't know. But he talks at great length about the concreteness of reality (we'd call it the Primacy of Existence) and repeats, but does not quote, Ayn Rand's statement (and I'm recalling from memory here) "Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed". (I have no idea if he's read Rand). He agrees that there are axioms, though he does not name them (like: to be Conscious is to Identify).