Begin With The End In Mind

Begin With The End In Mind

I DON'T intend to be a vehicle of Stephen Covey's popular book about 7 HABITS of highly effective people BUT at least for our thread today, please allow me to pick up his HABIT #2:  Begin With The End In Mind.  IF ever you're planning to build a house, do you directly start working on the ground OR create a blueprint first?  IF you have an upcoming speech, do you go to your engagement spontaneously OR do you spend hours drafting, crafting and finalizing your speech???

IF you're contemplating for a new business startup, should it NOT require first a well thought plan of action up front OR do you immediately take the plunge and start working on the nitty-gritty of things?  Absolutely, our answer is a loud NO BUT WHAT does that mean and HOW do we go about that?  Let's NOT look very much far back.  World-class athletes like Cristiano Ronaldo, NBA's Lebron James, Argentinian Lionel Messi, even Tennis great Roger Federer, they DIDN'T reach the peak of their successes by plunging into intensive trainings right on Day-1.  Instead, they should have sat down with their trainors and mentors to identify both their strengths and weaknesses and most importantly, to reaffirm their ultimate target success to achieve💦💦💦

In brief, these success stories had to plot their roadmap from point to point, from WHERE they stood at that point in time and WHERE they intend to stand within a rigid timeline.   Unless you and I will sit down to plot our roadmap, it will be too much to pitch that we BEING WITH THE END IN MIND.  In fact, studies show that around 80% do take pains to plan but easily, 50% of them fall flat right in their face.  WHY?  Because most of them did a damn sloppy job, [wrongly] thinking that things will go on 'auto pilot', which is farthest from WHAT is reality❎❎❎

BUT WHY is it hard for some of us to start with THE END IN MIND?  Now if you're on the road to nowhere, then you DON'T have a DESTINATION.  BUT BEGINNING with an ENDING really does have its merits.  One of those being the fixed point it provides us with the work towards.  This point we can test against and check in with.  We can measure any decision against WHETHER the outcome will move us closer or further away😌😌😌

Our takeaway:  WHY does the END matter?  It can help orient our actions and efforts in the present.  An ENDING is a real destination, it's a tangible and concrete and we all know the benefits of having one.  So, WHY DON'T we begin with an END more often?  If you're NOT clear about WHAT your endpoint is, HOW can you invest your time and energy in working towards?  And if you DON'T know WHAT you want, that's NEVER going to change UNLESS you BEGIN WITH THE END IN MIND???