Look at the word responsibility-"response-ability"-the ability to choose your response. Highly proactive people recognize that responsibility. They do not blame circumstances, conditions, or conditioning for their behavior. Their behavior is a product of their own conscious choice, based on values, rather than a product of their conditions, based on feeling.

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Prepare your mind and heart before you prepare your speech . What we say may be less important than how we say it.

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We immediately become more effective when we decide to change ourselves rather than asking things to change for us.

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I am not a product of my circumstances. I am a product of my decisions.

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Trust is the glue of life. It's the most essential ingredient in effective communication. It's the foundational principle that holds all relationships.

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The challenge is not to manage time, but to manage ourselves.

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When parents see their children's problems as opportunities to build the relationship instead of as negative, burdensome irritations, it totally changes the nature of parent-child interaction. Parents become more willing, even excited, about deeply understanding and helping their children. . . . This paradigm is powerful in business as well.

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Where you are headed is more important than how fast you are going. Rather than always focusing on what's urgent, learn to focus on what is really important.

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See every problem as an opportunity to exercise creative energy.

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Most of us spend too much time on what is urgent and not enough time on what is important.

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