In The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey talks about a concept he calls “rescripting”. The following paragraph from the book offers a brief explanation of what he means by that.
“Through imagination, we can visualize the uncreated worlds of potential that lie within us. Through conscience, we can come in contact with universal laws or principles with our own singular talents and avenues of contribution, and with the personal guidelines within which we can most effectively develop them. Combined with self-awareness, these two endowments empower us to write our own script.”
This is one of the most memorable parts of the book to me for several reasons. The first has to do with serendipity. I had read a number of books before this one that suggested the existence of natural laws without using those specific words. This is a bit different than what many people mean by “natural laws”; most people I’ve seen use that term are referring to the idea of an objective morality. The idea I had of natural laws was closer to the laws of physics. If I am familiar with the laws of physics, I know the limits to what is possible and I also have useful knowledge on how to best act within those limits. Similarly, by following natural laws, I can live in harmony with myself and with those around me, while failing to follow the laws creates strife and conflict.
I didn’t know much about The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People when I started reading it and I definitely wasn’t expecting Covey to identify natural laws by name (he refers to them as “universal” in the above passage and “natural” elsewhere in the book) exactly as I had thought about them, even down to comparing them to the laws of physics. Whenever I experience serendipity, I make sure to pay attention to whatever lesson follows from it as there is always something to be learned from these experiences. The serendipitous passages from the book grabbed my attention and prepared me to receive Covey’s lessons.
The other reason passages like that stand out so much to me is because they discuss self-improvement. There’s been a conflict in my mind for most of my life between the way I act and the person I want to be, with the two being at odds most of the time. The time I’ve spent during the past few years researching and practicing self-improvement techniques has greatly helped me act more like the person I want to be and reduced the conflict within myself. Covey’s points about imagining the potential within myself, studying natural laws and principles so I can be more effective, and having the self-awareness to reflect on and change my behavior have been some of the most useful self-improvement techniques I’ve come across.
Rescripting myself is something I’ve been working on for a few years now. I’m still working on becoming the person I want to be but every day I’m getting a little closer. Learning from people who came before me and discovered lots of useful life hacks has helped me a lot with self-improvement, and The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People contain some of the most useful life hacks I’ve found thus far. I love passing on information that’s helped me; if this is helpful to you, please let me know.