I am ashamed to admit it, but I bought the 7 Habits of Highly Effective Families about six months ago. At that time, I was going through a bit of a family crisis. When I first had twins, I thought it would be a blessing. They were so close to each other, and did so much to take care of each other, that I knew that they would be lifelong friends. I didn't anticipate how hard it would be down the road, however. When you have twins, you have to deal with them both going through adolescence at the same time. They were as difficult as could be, and as different as night and day. None of us were effective people in the way we were communicating, and the public the family was falling apart.
I was looking for answers, and turned to self help books. There are thousands upon thousands of self-help books on any conceivable topic, so it is difficult to pick out the right one. Usually, self help authors make good use of name recognition. The reason I bought the 7 Habits of Highly Effective Families Is because I have heard of Stephen Covey's other book, the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. I had never read this book, but I've heard people talk about it with a reverence that borders on awe. Apparently, it is a primer in leadership skills, character building, organization, and all of the other tools that people need to succeed. I figured that the 7 Habits of Highly Effective Families Would give my family the tools needed to succeed the same way that other book had helped some of my friends.
When I actually opened the book, I was sort of crushed. It contains very little besides platitudes. Of course, the Seven Habits of Highly Effective Families had some ideas that would work in principle, but there wasn't any miracle cure. In some ways, however, it still did a lot of good for me. If I hadn't read the 7 Habits of Highly Effective Families, I never would have realized that I had the tools in myself to fix my family's problems. I did not need any self-proclaimed experts to tell me how family dynamics worked. I just needed to distance myself from the situation at hand and think about things objectively. Once I did that, it was much easier to sort through family problems.
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