Begin with the End in mind
The end goal is the destination.
People are working harder than ever, but because they lack clarity and vision, they aren't getting very far. They, in essence, are pushing a rope with all of their might."
DR. STEPHEN R. COVEY
It is quite common that we confuse hard-working with productivity. We often expect to see positive results at the end of a day after we have worked long hours and spent lots of energy. This is mostly seen with “Achievers” – people who have a to-do list and want to tick each box at the end of each day. We do the same day after day and a month or six months later at a moment of reflection, we realize that we still are nowhere near our ultimate life-goal; The goal that we set at the beginning of the year or the goal that we set that day when we felt inspired after reading a book or watching our role-model succeed.
Stephen Covey, the author of the “The 7 habits of highly effective people”, explains that there is one main reason that prevents us from reaching our goals. And the reason is that we do not visualize our goals; We do not envision who we are today and where we want to be “tomorrow”. Stephen says, that succeeding with your goals follows the same process as building a house. First, you need to think and create that building in your mind (mental creation), and then start working on the base and walls (physical creation). If you do not follow the process and skip the first step, regardless of how hard you work every day, you most probably will end up with a house looking more as a labyrinth that does not satisfy your needs. You will need to still work on repairs day-after-day even after completion. And that is simply because you did not have a clear vision of where you wanted to go – what you wanted to build or achieve.
Beginning with the end in mind, is the second habit of the most highly effective people. They are effective, because they are able, and they take the time to visualize and think well where they want to be after “x” amount of time and for every single small or big goal they set.
If you do not make a conscious effort to visualize who you are and what you want in life, then you empower other people and circumstances to shape you and your life by default. It is all about realizing what makes you unique and then defining your personal, moral, and ethical guidelines within which you can better express and fulfill yourself. It is about starting things off with a clear idea of what the destination is, so that the steps we take are always in the right direction.
Studies in the human Recitular Activation System also suggest that by visualizing our goal and being fully aware of it, we activate all of our energy and all of the necessary faculties to effectively achieve it.
David Allen, known as the creator of the “Time Management” method, also supports that “to access the conscious and unconscious resources available to you, you must have a clear picture in your mind of what success looks like”.
What does it mean?
It is remarkably simple. As described earlier, beginning with the end in mind is all about asking yourself questions to determine your objectives and the real reasons behind wanting to achieve them. It is also about making sure that these reasons are linked to your values as an individual – your own values, not the values that others want to see in you or the ones that the company you work for defines for you. There is no specific and defined formula to achieve that. It is different for everyone because each of us is unique in our own way. To help you begin, you can ask yourself the below questions:
· Who and where am I today?
· What fulfills me as a person?
· What is it that I want to achieve?
· What is the purpose of what I am trying to achieve?
· What outcomes do I want?
· Why are these outcomes important/valuable?
· Why am I about to do what I am about to do?
· How would it be/look if I achieve what I want to achieve?
If it is so simple and effective, why don’t we all do it?
Overcoming Insecurities.
The answer to this question is quite ironic, but also simple to understand.
Beginning with the end in mind means that we need to set a goal, visualize it and in order to achieve it we need to commit to it. The feeling of commitment on its own is scary for many people. It sets pressure and limitations which do not allow us for much flexibility. And some times, we just need that flexibility to motivate ourselves by working towards multiple goals and activities at the same time, to feel that we are accomplishing something. Which in the short term can be effective, but in the long term it offers distraction and keeps us far from our bigger life goals. To avoid such feelings, we need to find balance between commitment and flexibility towards our objectives.
In the same line, we can easily say that we are not always clear of what we want to achieve in life. That means that we find it difficult to give a form to our goals. We cannot visualize them, and that creates insecurity. In return, insecurity leads us towards a feeling of self-protection. Because we do not have a clear goal, we are afraid of dedicating energy and effort into something “blurry”. We are afraid to try, and our “self-protecting” feeling prevents us from making the start.
Furthermore, some people are what we call perfectionists by nature; And being a perfectionist means that everything you start doing, you want it to be great. You feel bad if you do not achieve your goal. By not defining “the end” (the goal), you shouldn’t feel bad because you never committed to achieving something specific. Therefore, unconsciously you keep your options open in order to never have to deal with being unsuccessful.
Conclusion.
To make this habit work and to become one of the highly effective people out there, you need to follow three steps:
Convince yourself that none of the 4 highlighted reasons above will prevent you from working towards your goals.
You will answer the eight questions mentioned above in full honesty. You do not have to share them anyways. They are only to help you define and visualize “the end” based on your own unique values.
You will begin every day by repeating “the end” – the desired outcome.
Author: The HR Guy
