The Timeless Wisdom of Stephen R. Covey’s Three Constants
Stephen R. Covey’s observation that “there are three constants in life: change, choice and principles” 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, appearing 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 was making a bold philosophical statement in an era increasingly characterized by relativism and situational ethics, arguing that amidst all the flux and uncertainty of modern life, we retain the power to choose and 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, while 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, an experience that 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.
Following his return from England, Covey pursued advanced education at Harvard Business School, where he earned an MBA in organizational behavior, and later at Brigham Young University, where he earned a doctorate in religious education. His academic journey was unconventional—he was among the few MBA candidates at Harvard who already possessed a doctoral degree, approaching 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 because it ignored foundational principles and character development in favor of superficial techniques and personality-based approaches. This conviction drove him to conduct what would become a foundational research project: analyzing over two hundred years of American literature on success, 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”—the idea that success flowed from fundamental virtues like integrity, humility, fidelity, courage, and service. But the twentieth century, he discovered, had largely replaced this with what he called the “Personality Ethic,” which 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, which 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 while simultaneously developing his frameworks through interaction with thousands of students.
The quote about change, choice, and principles encapsulates the entire philosophy of Covey’s “Principle-Centered Leadership” approach. Change represents the external reality that none of us can control—the market disruptions, technological advances, health challenges, relationship shifts, and global upheavals that 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, but 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 that operate consistently across cultures and centuries. By identifying these three elements as constants, Covey was essentially arguing that while the world may seem chaotic and unpredictable, we are not helpless victims but rather conscious beings with the capacity to remain true to our values while adapting to new realities.
What many people don’t realize about Covey is that he 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, demonstrating publicly how he applied his own frameworks to recovery and adaptation. More significantly, Covey’s personal life included complex family dynamics and the challenge of