In The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Habit 2: Begin With the End in Mind encourages us to start with a clear, personal vision of who we want to be and what we want to accomplish. Covey presents a powerful visualization exercise: imagine your funeral, with speakers representing family, friends, colleagues, and community sharing their views of your life. As you completed this exercise, what did you discover? What did you imagine you accomplished in life and what did you hope people said about you? This exercise leads us to uncover our deepest values, helping us establish what truly matters and prompting us to create a “first creation” — a mental map or blueprint guiding our life choices and daily actions.

Covey introduces the concept of “Begin With the End in Mind” by emphasizing that everything is created twice: first in our minds and then in the physical world. Just like planning a home requires a blueprint, planning a meaningful life requires a clear vision of who we want to become. By taking ownership of this mental creation, we begin leading our lives with purpose rather than letting circumstances or others define us. Many people strive for “empty victories” — achievements misaligned with their core values. We may find ourselves climbing “ladders leaning against the wrong walls,” or achieving success in ways that ultimately feel hollow. To avoid this, Covey suggests that we develop an “inner compass,” guiding us through life with clarity and intentionality. This compass helps us focus on what truly matters rather than getting lost in the urgent but unimportant tasks that often fill our days.

With this approach, Covey urges us to “write our own script,” rather than letting societal pressures, past habits, or external expectations determine our course. Through self-awareness and imagination, we can shift away from reactive scripts that may not reflect our real values. This process is about “rescripting,” or replacing ineffective, outdated paradigms with those that align with our true principles. Covey says, “We are response-able,” meaning we have the power to shift our perspective and act in line with our values, ultimately shaping a life that resonates with our authentic self.

Covey’s idea of living out of “imagination instead of memory” invites us to design our lives proactively, focusing on our potential instead of past mistakes. As Covey explains, we have the ability to “approach each role in life with values and directions clear,” ensuring that as challenges arise, we can act based on our guiding principles rather than reacting to the situation. By making the conscious choice to live out our deepest values, Covey believes that each decision contributes to the whole of our lives, aligning us with what we truly want. It’s not about striving for perfection but about keeping our vision in mind as we face life’s inevitable ups and downs.

Questions to Consider:

– Are there areas in your life where you feel you’re achieving success but missing a sense of fulfillment?

– What are some values you’d like to be remembered for?

– How might beginning each day with the “end in mind” shape your choices and actions?

The second habit challenges us to think deeply about our destination and to ensure that our daily actions are taking us there, building a life not just of success but of meaningful, lasting impact. Don’t forget to tune in on January 6th as we learn more about beginning with the end in mind, covering pages 120-142 and discussing how to find your center.

“This is your funeral, three years from today…There are to be four speakers. The first is from your family,…The second speaker is one of your friends….The third speaker is from your work or profession. The fourth is from your church or some community organization where you’ve been involved in service…. What would you like each of these speakers to say about you and your life?”

“If you participated seriously in this visualization experience, you touched for a moment some of your deep, fundamental values. You established brief contact with that inner guidance system at the heart of your Circle of Influence.”

“Although Habit 2 applies to many different circumstances and levels of life, the most fundamental application of ‘begin with the end in mind’ is to begin today with the image, picture, or paradigm of the end of your life as your frame of reference or the criterion by which everything else is examined. Each part of your life–today’s behavior, tomorrow’s behavior, next week’s behavior, next month’s behavior–can be examined in the context of the whole, of what really matters most to you. By keeping that end clearly in mind, you can make certain that whatever you do on any particular day does not violate the criteria you have defined as supremely important, and that each day of your life contributes in a meaningful way to the vision you have of your life as a whole. To begin with the end in mind means to start with a clear understanding of your destination. It means to know where you’re going so that you better understand where you are now and so that the steps you take are always in the right direction.”

“It is possible to be busy – very busy – without being very effective.”

“People often find themselves achieving victories that are empty, successes that  have come at the expense of things they suddenly realize were far more valuable to them.”

“If the ladder is not leaning against the right wall, every step we take just gets us to the wrong place faster. We may be very busy, we may be very efficient, but we will also be truly effective only when we begin with the end in mind.”

“If you carefully consider what you wanted to be said of you in the funeral experience, you will find your definition of success. It may be very different from the definition you thought you had in mind. Perhaps fame, achievement, money, or some of the other things we strive for are not even part of the right wall.”

“‘Begin with the end in mind’ is based on the principle that all things are created twice. There’s a mental or first creation, and a physical or second creation, to all things.”

“Measure twice, cut once.”

“To the extent to which we understand the principle of two creations and accept the responsibility for both, we act within and enlarge the borders of our Circle of Influence. To the extent to which we do not operate in harmony with this principle and do not take charge of the first creation, we diminish it.”

“In our personal lives, if we do not develop our own self-awareness and do not become responsible for first creations, we empower other people and circumstances outside our Circle of Influence to shape much of our lives by default.”

“Whether we are aware of it or not, whether we are in control of it or not, there is a first creation to every part of our lives. We are either the creation of our own proactive design, or we are the second creation of other people’s agendas, of circumstances, or of past habits.”

“Habit 1 says ‘You are the creator’. Habit 2 is the first creation.”

“As individuals, groups, and businesses, we’re often so busy cutting through the undergrowth we don’t even realize we’re in the wrong jungle. And the rapidly changing environment in which we live makes effective leadership m ore critical than it has ever been–in every aspect of independent and interdependent life.”

“We are more in need of a vision or destination and a compass (a set of principles or directions) and less in need of a road map….an inner compass will always give us direction.”

“And leadership is even more lacking in our personal lives. We’re into managing with efficiency, setting and achieving goals before we have even clarified our values.”

“As we previously observed, proactivity is based on the unique human endowment of self-awareness. The two additional unique human endowments that enable us to expand our proactivity and to exercise personal leadership in our lives are imagination and conscience. Through imagination, we can visualize the uncreated worlds of potential that lie within us. Through conscience, we can come in contact with universal laws or principles with our own singular talents and avenues of contribution, and with the personal guidelines within which we can most effectively develop them. Combined with self-awareness, these two endowments empower us to write our own script. Because we already live with many scripts that have been handed to us, the process of writing our own script is actually more a process of ‘rescripting,’ or paradigm shifting–of changing some of the basic paradigms that we already have. As we recognize the ineffective scripts, the incorrect or incomplete paradigms within us, we can proactively begin to rescript ourselves.”

“In developing our own self-awareness many of us discover ineffective scripts, deeply embedded habits that are totally unworthy of us, totally incongruent with the things we really value in life. Habit 2 says we don’t have to live with those scripts. We are response-able to use our imagination and creativity to write new ones that are more effective, more congruent with our deepest values and with the correct principles that give our values meaning.”

“What matters most gets buried under layers of pressing problems, immediate concerns, and outward behaviors.”

“Because I am self-aware, because I have imagination and conscience, I can examine my deepest values. I can realize that the script I’m living is not in harmony with those values, that my life is not the product of my own proactive design, but the result of the first creation I have deferred to circumstances and other people. And I can change. I can live out of my imagination instead of my memory. I can tie myself to my limitless potential instead of my limiting past. I can become my own first creator. To begin with the end in mind means to approach my role as a parent, as well as my other roles in life, with my values and directions clear. It means to be responsible for my own first creation, to rescript myself so that the paradigms from which my behavior and attitude flow are congruent with my deepest values and in harmony with correct principles. It also means to begin each day with those values firmly in mind. THen as the vicissitudes, as the challenges come, I can make my decisions based on those values. I can act with integrity. I don’t have to react to the emotion, the circumstance. I can be truly proactive, value driven, because my values are clear.”

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