The Timeless Wisdom of Stephen R. Covey’s Three Constants
Understanding the Three Constants in Life
Stephen R. Covey observed that “there are three constants in life: change, choice and principles.” This insight emerged from decades of personal reflection, professional experience, and research into human behavior and organizational development. While the exact date and context of this quote’s origin remain somewhat elusive in popular documentation, it represents the culmination of Covey’s life work. He included it frequently in his writings and lectures from the 1990s onward as he refined his philosophy of personal and interpersonal effectiveness.
The quote synthesizes the core themes that would define Covey’s career: an acknowledgment of life’s inevitable transformations, an insistence on human agency and responsibility, and a deep conviction that enduring principles form the foundation of meaningful existence. By framing these three elements as “constants,” Covey made a bold philosophical statement in an era increasingly characterized by relativism and situational ethics. He argued that amidst all the flux and uncertainty of modern life, we retain the power to choose. We also have the anchor of timeless principles.
Stephen R. Covey was born on October 24, 1932, in Salt Lake City, Utah, into a prominent family with deep roots in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. His father, William Stephen Covey, was a prominent businessman and community leader. His mother, Muriel McArthur, instilled in him a commitment to education and moral development from an early age. Covey’s childhood was marked by privilege but also by high expectations and a strong emphasis on ethical behavior and personal responsibility.
He would later credit his parents with modeling the principles-centered approach that would become his trademark. After graduating from Brigham Young University with a degree in business administration, Covey served a two-year mission for the LDS church in England from 1956 to 1958. This experience deepened his spiritual foundation and gave him firsthand exposure to different cultures and perspectives. This missionary work proved formative, exposing him to human struggles and aspirations that would later inform his work in personal development.
What Change, Choice and Principles Really Mean
Following his return from England, Covey pursued advanced education at Harvard Business School and Brigham Young University. He earned an MBA in organizational behavior from Harvard and a doctorate in religious education from BYU. His academic journey was unconventional—he was among the few MBA candidates at Harvard who already possessed a doctoral degree. He approached business education with philosophical questions rather than purely technical interests. During his academic career, Covey became increasingly convinced that much of contemporary management theory and personal development literature was fundamentally flawed. It ignored foundational principles and character development in favor of superficial techniques and personality-based approaches. This conviction drove him to conduct a foundational research project: analyzing over two hundred years of American literature on success. He examined works from the founding fathers through contemporary self-help authors to identify common threads in human achievement and fulfillment.
His research revealed what he considered a seismic shift in American thinking about success. Before approximately 1920, most American literature on success emphasized what Covey termed the “Character Ethic.” Success flowed from fundamental virtues like integrity, humility, fidelity, courage, and service. But the twentieth century largely replaced this with what he called the “Personality Ethic.” This approach promised success through techniques, image manipulation, communication skills, and positive thinking divorced from genuine character development. This insight became the animating force behind his most famous work, “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People,” published in 1989.
The book sold over thirty million copies and transformed Covey into one of the most influential thinkers of his generation. The book’s success, however, was built on decades of teaching experience. Covey had been a professor at Brigham Young University since 1971, where he taught leadership, organizational behavior, and business policy. Simultaneously, he developed his frameworks through interaction with thousands of students.
How These Three Constants Shape Your Future
The quote about change, choice, and principles encapsulates Covey’s entire “Principle-Centered Leadership” approach. Change represents the external reality that none of us can control. Market disruptions, technological advances, health challenges, relationship shifts, and global upheavals characterize human existence. Choice represents our fundamental human freedom and accountability. As Covey often emphasized, drawing on Viktor Frankl’s work, we cannot always control our circumstances. We can always choose our response to them.
Principles, the third element, form the stable ground upon which we stand while navigating change and making choices. For Covey, principles were not arbitrary personal beliefs but universal truths discoverable through careful observation of natural law and human experience. Concepts like honesty, fairness, service, excellence, and growth operate consistently across cultures and centuries. By identifying these three elements as constants, Covey argued that while the world may seem chaotic and unpredictable, we are not helpless victims. We are conscious beings with the capacity to remain true to our values while adapting to new realities.
Many people don’t realize that Covey experienced profound personal struggles that tested his own philosophy in ways his published work only hints at. In 1997, at the height of his fame and influence, Covey suffered a serious bicycle accident that left him partially paralyzed. Rather than retreat, he used the experience as a living laboratory for his principles. He publicly demonstrated how he applied his own frameworks to recovery and adaptation. More significantly, Covey’s personal life included complex family dynamics and the challenge of