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THE THREE RESOLUTIONS

~ Your Personal Mission Controller – Self-Leadership That Works

THE THREE RESOLUTIONS

Tag Archives: Begin with the End in Mind

Seven Habits – Day 10 – Habit Two. Begin with the End in Mind.

10 Friday Jul 2020

Posted by threeresolutionsguy in Uncategorized

≈ Comments Off on Seven Habits – Day 10 – Habit Two. Begin with the End in Mind.

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Begin with the End in Mind, BLM, Donald Trump, Habit 2, seven habits, stephen r covey

We read over the past few days how we have the ability to choose our response to any event that happens to us. So how do we address the biggest event of all? Through Habit Two – Begin with the End in Mind.

On first sight of that term, you’d be forgiven for thinking that we do that any time we plan a project, be it going to the shops, applying for a job or planning a holiday, for example. My response would be that you’d be surprised how little effort many people put into even those projects. And rarely to the biggest project of all.

Have you ever gone shopping, then got home and realised you forgot to get something you planned, or more likely forgot to plan to buy something you needed. Beginning with the End in Mind is often something to which only lip-service is paid. But I digress.

Beginning with the End in Mind, remember, is a Habit of highly effective people. Not just a tenet, it’s a way of life. And this is where it can have the most impact – life. As one writer put it – we spend more time planning our holidays than we do planning our lives.

The most impactive and profound exercising of Habit Two occurs when what you have in mind as beginning – is the rest of your life.

All things are created twice – there is a mental creation, which gives rise to the physical creation. A building is planned in meticulous detail before ground is broken, so why not your whole life. Your physical, mental, social and spiritual lives can all be planned, selected – chosen. Beginning with the End in Mind is leadership – self-leadership. It is deciding how you will live the rest of your life. It is establishing a vision for the legacy you will leave, and then making it happen. It is using the four endowments discussed earlier – self-awareness, creative imagination, independent will and conscience – to decide how you will achieve what you want to achieve.

When you exercise Habit Two, you approach as many experiences as possible with a plan – what is the objective of what I am about to do? Conversations will have new purpose, relationships will be more rewarding, projects will have a higher success rate – if you know what the objective is before you even start. Including your life.

Viktor Frankl is famed for suggesting, from his experiences in concentration camps, that having a purpose beyond ones self is a sound basis for living a long and happy life. He called his theories ‘Logotherapy’ from logos – meaning. A man or woman with a purpose is a hard thing to oppose!

What we choose – or fail to choose – to do in the face of this knowledge predetermines our sense of personal self-esteem and our levels of success. If we know what we are for, and set about it, every success is a victory, every setback just means we change direction, just as an aircraft does on a flight. It gets buffeted by winds but always gets back on course, arriving at its intended destination despite all that buffeting.

Covey promoted the creation of a personal mission statement, a document created by an individual in which they stated in clear terms what they wanted to achieve (vision) and how they would behave in order to achieve that (values). I have found that having such a document can be extremely empowering – particularly when, having stated therein that I wish to be fit and healthy, I don’t want to exercise. I read it – I exercise. I reinforce my own desire towards a particular ‘end’ when I state, in advance, what the end actually is. Like writing this series of articles to convince others to read a book that can change their lives.

Tomorrow – what is at the centre of your life?

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Habit 2 – Brush Daily.

03 Monday Feb 2020

Posted by threeresolutionsguy in Time Management, Uncategorized

≈ Comments Off on Habit 2 – Brush Daily.

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Begin with the End in Mind, seven habits, Stephen R Covey", the seven habits of highly effective people

And today’s question is: What am I doing (Am I doing anything??) to establish Begin with the End in Mind as a habit of effectiveness in my life?

Seems a simple question. If I was to guess, when it comes to work-related strategies and tasks, most readers would have a list of answers available. However, I would also surmise that the Beginning with the End in Mind in respect of work is more about processes and protocols that dictate what you do, rather than actually applying that particular habit at a conscious level.

All the same, work examples proliferate, so I’ll ask you to look, instead, at your personal lives, and perhaps at the most basic of levels. What are you doing at home to which you apply End in Mind thinking?

Here’s an odd one. I’ll be blunt and say that I hate cleaning my teeth. Don’t know why, some childhood trauma, I suppose. Maybe one day I was cleaning my teeth and Dad walked into the room naked. Whatever, I hate standing still long enough to brush, and this was more obvious before I invested in an electric toothbrush, and these days it is a habit, as it should be.

This morning, though, I had a blinding flash of the obvious. What is the End in Mind with tooth-brushing? The most obvious answer would be avoidance of bad breath and cleany-whitey teeth, but that in either case that is a day-long, fleeting objective.

No, this morning I realised that the End in Mind was a 6-month process. It wasn’t about the sensibilities of my workmates or going out on the pull with pearly white pearly whites. It was about going to the dentist and coming away without the impending terror of a needle and a drill.

That was my new end in Mind. I love cleaning my teeth, regardless of Dad’s indiscretion.

That may be a silly example, but it does illustrate how little we think about Ends in the moment. We think about today’s tasks, and we think most of all about what is smack bang in front of us in the moment. Which is one of the reasons a lot of professionals feel stress at work – the ‘in your face’ prevents us doing the ‘important’. We are constantly interrupted by minutiae, but minutiae that someone demands we do, whether now or to some arguably random and unnecessary deadline invented to make life easier for an administrator rather than an operator.

But like tooth-brushing, if we stop for a moment and really think about the End rather than the interim objective, perhaps we can see more clearly what is important, what brings the most return on our time, or even just what the ultimate benefit could be. And at the same time see what really should be left until it absolutely has to be done, and with the appropriate non-priority.

Think about all those things you hate doing, which you put off easily or completely avoid.

What IS the ultimate, perhaps more important objective?

If discovering that changes your perspective enough to maximise your effectiveness, do it.

It’ll save needing professional help later. I promise.

And the dentist ain’t buying a new BMW on MY dollar.

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