Begin with the end in mind

Published 8:00 am Thursday, January 9, 2020

“The only thing worse than being blind is having sight, but no vision.” – Helen Keller

One habit in “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People” is my favorite habit. Author Stephen R. Covey teaches us through another habit (be proactive) that we have more control than we thought.

We learn through habit two that our first action is to envision the future we want: If we fail to envision our future, we are relegated to being players in someone else’s vision.

There are two reasons vision or beginning with the end in mind is so important.

1 – Vision Builds Faith and Encourages Action

Life is tough. We live in a fallen world with a whole bunch of nastiness highlighted by the news media every single day. We will fail. We will fall. Bad things will happen. The only way to do great things in this life is to be a person who keeps getting back up and working towards our desired goals.

Getting back up and continuing to work hard requires faith – faith that the vision we have will happen.

“Faith is the evidence of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1).

An inspiring vision also encourages action. Accomplishing great things requires a ton of work. Way more than the average person is giving. We must encourage ourselves that the vision is worth all that extra work or we’ll quit.

Make your vision so clear, so inspiring, that you will push through any fear, any obstacle to achieve it.

2 – Vision Helps You Make Decisions

Every decision we make takes us in one of two directions – closer to our goals or further away from them. If I hit the snooze button and skip going to the gym, I am further away from my fitness goals. If I say no to the donut at church, I am closer to my health goals. The extra sales call I made at the end of the day, when I didn’t want to do it, got me closer to my business goals.

When we have a clear understanding of our destination, we can create a plan that shows us the next best step towards achieving our vision. With the vision and plan in place, it becomes easy to know if a decision will take us closer to or further away from our goal.

How To Create Your Vision

I am a veteran at messing up goal setting. Please learn from my mistakes.

I have failed by setting goals that are too dependent on what others think.

I have failed by setting too many goals and trying to be too many things to too many people.

My goals crashed and burned under both scenarios. Here are the steps that have worked for me. I hope you find them helpful.

Step 1- Get Quiet and Get the Vision

To do this step, I ask people to envision themselves at the end of their lives. They’ve lived a long life and the end is here. They are in the hospital and they’ve said their goodbyes. It is late at night and everyone is sleeping but you. You can hear the beep-beep of the heart monitor. You have some time to look back at your life and answer these questions:

• What/Who really mattered in life?

• What did you spend time on that you wish you hadn’t?

• What were the things you did that made life great?

Step 2 – Prioritize

Take the answers from step one and think about your life in buckets or categories (friends, family, faith, fun and fitness are common buckets). What do you want your story to look like in each of those buckets?

Now, put those buckets in priority order. This is where we goof this up. We want to be everything to everyone, but we can’t pull it off. By prioritizing, you are putting “first things first” and if you don’t get to the rest, that is OK.

My priorities in order are God, my wife, my kids and my work. Health and God are more like over-arching themes. God sets my priorities for me and I seek to glorify Him in what he has given me. I need health and God to power the results in each bucket.  

Step 3 – Find Twofers

This is a fun thing about prioritizing. When you put first things first, you can find ways to get stuff done that was lower on your list while serving a higher priority. For instance, playing or exercising with my family is a twofer. Church activities and doing for others with my family is a twofer. Listening to audiobooks while I exercise serves my health, business and families goals depending on what I’m listening to.

Step 4 – Forgive Yourself

You will disappoint people as you focus on your priorities. Saying “NO” is required to create the focus you need. People hate hearing no.

I am a born people pleaser and I hate telling people no. I must remind myself that when I say yes to something, I am saying no to something else. Is that something else a higher priority in my life?

Step 5 – Rinse and Repeat

Check in with the people who matter most to you regularly. Ask how you are doing. Make adjustments by finding wins, twofers and comprises. If we stay committed to our priorities, we can create a life that we are proud of.

I find it difficult to say no to lots of the other stuff I’d love to do. But by staying focused on my priorities I know I am creating a life that I will be proud of and that I hope will lead to a “well done” when I get to heaven.

If you are ready to get started creating more clarity and meaning in your organization and life, check out our free “Values Driven Leadership” course at  https://valuesdrivenresults.com/resource-library/.

As always, you can reach me at 229.244.1559 if I can help in any way.

Curt Fowler is President of Fowler & Company and Director at Fowler, Holley, Rambo & Stalvey. He is dedicated to helping leaders build great organizations and better lives for themselves and the people they lead.