Sean Covey

“Our confidence needs to come from within, not without. From the quality of our hearts, not the quantity of things we own. After all, he who dies with the most toys...still dies.”

“Don't struggle about the struggle. In other words, life's full of ups and downs. So if you're struggling, don't worry, everyone else has or will at some point.”

“You are free to choose what you want to make of your life. It's called free agency or free will, and it's your birthright.”

“Ask any successful person, and most will tell you that they had a person who believed in them... a teacher, a friend, a parent, a guardian, a sister, a grandmother. It only takes one person, and it doesn't really matter who it is.”

“I like how Mother Teresa put it: "Let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier. Be the living expression of God's kindness: kindness in your face, in your eyes, in your smile." If you approach life this way, always looking for ways to build instead of to tear down, you'll be amazed at how much happiness you can give to others and find for yourself”

“Having the courage to say no when all your friends are saying yes is one of the most difficult things you'll ever have to do. Doing it, however, is one of the biggest charges you can ever make to your personal battery. I call this 'won't power.'”

“I think the greatest challenge between child and parent is communication.”

“It's especially hard to admit that you made a mistake to your parents, because, of course, you know so much more than they do.”

“The following is a list of statements made many years ago by experts in their fields. At the time they were said they sounded intelligent. With the passing of time, they sound idiotic.”

“Ultimately, you choose to be happy or miserable. The reality is that although you are free to choose, you can't choose the consequences of your choices. They're preloaded. It's a package deal.”

“Stop being a critic and be a light; don't be a judge, be a model. I think we are far too critical. I think the best way to correct behavior is to accentuate and affirm positive behavior and to ignore negative behavior. Generally speaking, there is a time to correct, of course; but my biggest advice would be, 'Affirm your child.'”

“Saying 'yes' to one thing means saying 'no' to another. That's why decisions can be hard sometimes.”

“Some of the more popular life-centers for teens include Friends, Stuff, Enemies, Self, and Work. They each have their good points, but they are all incomplete in one way or another, and they'll mess you up if you center your life on any one of them to the exclusion of the others.”

“Seeing things from a different point of view can help us understand why other people act the way they do. We too often judge people without having all the facts.”

“You shouldn't feel guilty about taking time for yourself. Every so often, everyone needs to give themselves a big ol' bear hug and treat themselves to some TLC.”

“It's all about how you feel, not how you look”

“We are free to choose our paths, but we can't choose the consequences that come with them.”

“The average teen today spends about 35 hours a week in front of a screen of some kind: iPod, movie, TV, video. And a lot of it is good, but a lot of it's not. And so I think you've got that five hours a day of media coming into your kid's head that's creating a lot of havoc out there.”

“Depending on what they are, our habits will either make us or break us. We become what we repeatedly do.”

“Paradigms are like glasses. When you have incomplete paradigms about yourself or life in general, it's like wearing glasses with the wrong prescription. That lens affects how you see everything else.”