This is the summary of Habit 2, Begin with the End in Mind, from Stephen Covey’s renowned bestseller, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

The book, ‘Habit 2” begins with the end in mind, we see Stephen Covey starting the chapter by inviting us to visualize attending our own funeral and understand what we want our family, friends, and colleagues to say about us. However, after visualizing this you might feel what is the need for us to do this and what will happen if we won’t?

Summary of Habit 2 of 7 Habits

In Habit 2, Covey describes the importance of keeping end results in mind before starting a day, task, or project. According to him, all things are created twice – the mental creation and the physical condition. If you don’t work on visualizing who you are and what you want in your life, unfortunately, you are left at the disposal of others to provide you with directions. You will depend on others regarding what to do next and how to do it.

He also discusses how creating a mission statement helps you to concentrate on what you want to do and that you should be the sole decision-maker of your life.

Understanding what the Habit-2 is About

Wayne W. Dyer is often quoted for this:

Begin with the end in mind. Start with the end outcome and work backward to make your dream possible

Stephen Covey himself has explained this need as a process to validate if the steps taken by us are in the right direction and as per our ultimate objective.

There is no point in driving a fast car if you are heading in the wrong direction.

Finding Your Life Purpose

However, this habit, plan with the end in mind, also creates a need to draft a vision and mission for oneself as we all work hard for objectives like promotions, higher income, and more recognition but never understand if these things really matter. To draft a vision for oneself/family/team check out these interesting takes on how to start within a flash.

How to Know Your Life Purpose in 5 Minutes

It is one of the most-watched TEDx videos. A 10-minute video by Adam Leipzig, CEO of Entertainment Media Partners, an American film and theatre producer, film executive, and author. He has explained his idea in the following 5 questions.

  • Who are you?
  • What do you do? – What are you best at?
  • Who do you do it for? – Ex. family, parents, friends, wife, husband, etc.
  • What do those people want or need? – Why do people come to you for that thing you do?
  • What do those people get out of it?

Here’s the key takeaway from this TED Talk- ‘identify what the greater purpose is of what you love to do’. When you can do that, not only will it make your work/hobby sound more interesting to other people, but you may just start to walk into work with more energy and purpose.

How to Discover Your Life Purpose in About 20 Minutes

This is one of the most-read articles by people who are looking to know what they should achieve in their life and how to figure it out. It is written by Steve Pavlina, an American self-help author, motivational speaker, and entrepreneur.

Apps that Can Support the Habits

  • Once, you are ready with the purpose of your life or project, pen down the exact mission statement using a simple tool, Mission Statement Builder. List down the values which have significance in your life and then use the tool to write down the mission of your life for various roles you undertake each day.
  • Another tool that can help you think at a high level is a mind map tool like MindMaple.
  • You now have well-defined personal, moral, and ethical guidelines which represent you and make you happy. You can use Week Plan to ensure you execute your vision.

Key Takeaways Of Habit 2

It is pointless and a waste of time if you don’t have end results in your mind before starting a project. By keeping the end goal in mind, you are more focused on achieving your targets because you know your aim and the purpose of the goal.

  • Knowing the end results, you can track your progress because you have a defined benchmark to compare how things are going.
  • By defining what you want to achieve, you can accomplish things better and faster than if you don’t define them.
  • With the end in mind, you have a sense of purpose that keeps you feeling more positive towards the goal you are working on.
  • By planning the end results, you have clarity over your end game and your achievements with that.
  • Setting end results gives you a single point of focus so that you can spend your entire time and energy on it instead of working around different things at a time.
  • Time management also becomes easy with the end in mind because you have a clear idea of your goals which helps you allocate the correct proportion of time to every task.
  • Your decision-making ability also becomes clearer because you know your end plan so you take the decision according to it.

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