Saturday, January 13, 2007

The 7 habits of highly effective people!


The best part of this book is when Stephen covey writes:

In your mind's eye, see yourself going to the funeral parlor or chapel, parking the car, and getting out.
As you walk inside the building, you notice the flowers, the soft organ music. You see the faces of friends and family you pass along the way. You feel the shared sorrow of losing, the joy of having known, that radiates from the hearts of the people there.
As you walk down to the front of the room and look inside the casket, you suddenly come face to face with yourself.
This is your funeral, three years from today. All these people have come to honour you, to express feelings of love and appreciation for your life.
As you take a seat and wait for the services to begin, you look at the program in your hand.

There are to be four speakers.

The first one is someone from your family.
The second speaker is one of your friends, someone who can give a sense of what you were as a person.
The third speaker is from your work or profession. And the fourth is
from your church or some community organization where you've been involved in service.
Now think deeply. What would you like each of these speakers to say about you and your life?
What character would you like them to have seen in you? What contributions, what achievements would you want them to remember? Look carefully at the people around you.

This is the second habit that Stephen learns us in his amazing book: “Begin with the end in mind”
Everything that you do right now and in the future can be observed if you “begin with the end in mind” and you can ultimately find what really matters to you.
And with this “mindset” you can be certain that everything you do in your life contributes in some way to your idea of life in whole.
You now know the end, so you can correct your steps precisely.

8 Comments:

At January 13, 2007 at 3:53 PM , Blogger Secret Simon said...

But if you keep the end in mind all the time, will you notice your life going by? And if you focus on what other people are going to say at your funeral, will you spend your life trying to please other people instead of living the kind of life which *you* want?

This might be a recipe for what the world considers to be 'success' but I don't think it's a recipe for living a happy life. Depends what you want, I suppose.

 
At January 14, 2007 at 2:29 PM , Blogger Sean Dickinson said...

Hi Robin,

I enjoy your comments on books, some of which are favourites of mine, some new to me.

'Begin with the end in mind' I think is frequently stated as the most prevalant core skill of high achievers (in NLP they call it outcome thinking).

Simon makes a good point though - joy is in the now. But joy is also in the journey and a journey without a destination is wandering. I recently heard someone talk of outcomes as like the horizon - good to aim at but also good that they keep moving to a tantalising distance.

Sean

 
At January 14, 2007 at 6:04 PM , Blogger Ramon J Ross said...

Hi Robin,
Thanks for your post on my blog at created-health.blogspot.com and I have enjoyed reading yours. 2 books you might find interesting that are right down the same thought as "The 7 habits..." are found at http://www.1shoppingcart.com/app/?af=513593 and http://www.1shoppingcart.com/app/?af=515673 Don't be afraid to sign up for them because they are free. And I am sure you will enjoy them. Thanks
Ramon

 
At March 11, 2007 at 10:23 PM , Blogger Kiyotoe said...

So where's the line between keeping the "end in mind" and obsessing about the future? Couldn't that lead you to miss out on a lot of the good things happening today?

 
At March 28, 2007 at 12:58 PM , Blogger Forgetful God said...

1 habit of the highly effective "person" - Be here now. This one habit will lead to insighs, a sense of self, and enhanced growth through letting go of previous assumptions and ideas.

Looking forward to your next post,

A Forgetful God

 
At September 24, 2009 at 10:35 PM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

Very thoughtfull post on mind .It should be very much helpfull.

Thanks,
Karim - Creating Power

 
At May 4, 2015 at 10:47 AM , Blogger hgg said...

Live with the end in mind? Or live in the now?

It is a narrow perspective to think you can or should ONLY do either.

I believe that through insightful thought about our past, present, and future, we then learn HOW to live in the now.

Hence, gain the perspective of having the "end in mind," learn it, absorb the meaning. Then when the "now" brings you moments to choose, you will adapt with that understanding "in mind."

 
At May 4, 2015 at 11:14 AM , Blogger hgg said...

This post actually has such a profound meaning to me personally, I want to give a personal example of my interpretation, and how I "used" it.

I have made decisions in my life that have resulted in loss and destruction. One day, I understood that it was not the decisions that were at fault, it was how and why I made them.

Thus, I realized that I could make "wise" choices, and so began my pursuit for wisdom. Why? To make as many wise decisions as possible.

All interpretations of wisdom can be useful. To "consider the end first" is in my opinion almost the same as simply using foresight.

So, for those who think living in the present cannot be done or receive benefit without foresight, consider the simplest example. Would you cross the street without looking???

 

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