Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind Flashcards
What thought experiment does Covey open the chapter with?
Envisioning your own funeral and thinking what you would want four speakers to say.
Where are each of the four speakers in Covey’s funeral thought experiment from?
Your friends, your family, your work or profession, and a church or community organization.
What is the most fundamental application of “begin with the end in mind”?
To begin today with the image, picture, or paradigm of the end of your life as your frame of reference or the criterion by which everything else is examined.
What does “begin with the end in mind” mean? What metaphor does Covey use to explain it?
It means to start with a clear understanding of your destination; Covey uses the metaphor of a ladder being leaned up against a wall: you can climb the ladder even very quickly, but that’s ineffective if the ladder is leaned up against the wrong wall.
How many times does Covey say things are created? Name these creations.
Twice. There’s the first, mental creation, and the second, physical creation.
Explain the relationship of the two creations to the Circle of Influence.
To the extent to which we understand the principle of two creations and accept the responsibility for both, we act within and enlarge the borders of our Circle of Influence. To the extent to which we do not operate in harmony with this principle and do not take charge of the first creation, we diminish it.
What happens in our personal lives if we do not develop our own self-awareness and do not become responsible for first creations?
We empower other people and circumstances outside our Circle of influence to shape much of our lives by default. We live scripts not of our making/to our liking.
Describe the difference between leadership and management.
Leadership is the first creation. Management is the second creation. Leadership has to come first. Management has a bottom-line focus–“How can I best accomplish certain things?” Leadership deals with the top line: “What are the things I want to accomplish?”
What metaphor does Covey use to illustrate the difference between producers, managers, and leaders? Briefly describe each role.
Cutting through a jungle with machetes. Producers are cutting through the jungle; managers sharpen machetes, hold physical fitness seminars, set up schedules and compensation plans, etc.; leaders survey the situation and say “wrong jungle.”
What does Covey say leadership in business must do?
Monitor changes in industry/customer needs to organize resources in the right direction.
What allows us to be proactive? What allows us to expand our proactivity and exercise personal leadership in our lives?
Self-awareness; imagination and conscience.
Briefly summarize the story of Anwar Sadat rescripting himself that Covey tells.
Sadat spoke of his hatred for Israel, but knew that script would ultimately be ineffective, so he rescripted himself using mental/meditation techniques he learned in prison. Briefly, during Nasser’s administration, Sadat was relegated to a position of relative unimportance, but eventually he realized the opportunity to become president of Egypt. He visited the Knessett in Jerusalem and started an important peace movement, bringing about the Camp David Accord, affecting millions of lives.
What does Covey say is the most effective way he knows to begin with the end in mind? Describe it.
To develop a personal mission statement or philosophy or creed.
A personal mission statement based on correct principles becomes a kind of standard for an individual. It becomes a personal constitution, the basis for making daily decisions in the midst of the circumstances and emotions that affect our lives. It empowers individuals with timeless strength in the midst of change.
Where must we begin in order to write a personal mission statement? How do we do this?
At the very center of our Circle of Influence, where we deal with our vision and values.
We use our endowment of self-awareness to examine our “maps” and, if we value correct principles, to make certain that our maps accurately describe the territory and that our paradigms are based on principles and reality. We use our endowment of conscience as a compass to help us detect our own unique talents and areas of contribution. It is here that we use our endowment of imagination to mentally create the end we desire, giving direction and purpose to our beginnings and providing the substance of a written personal constitution.
(1. Use self-awareness to examine our paradigms to make sure our paradigms accurately reflect principles and reality.
2. Use conscience to detect our own unique talents and areas of contribution.
3. Use imagination to mentally create the end we desire to give direction and purpose to our beginnings and provide the substance of a written personal constitution.)
Whatever is at the center of your life will become the source of what four things? Describe them, then describe their relationship to each other. Do we possess these qualities in an all-or-nothing manner?
Security, guidance, wisdom, and power.
Security represents your sense of worth, your identity, your emotional anchorage, your self-esteem, your basic personal strength or lack of it.
Guidance means your source of direction in life.
Wisdom is your perspective on life, your sense of balance, your understanding of how the various parts and principles apply and relate to each other.
Power is the faculty or capacity to act, the strength and the potency to accomplish something.
These four factors are interdependent. Security and clear guidance bring true wisdom, and wisdom becomes the spark or catalyst to release and direct power.
We don’t possess these qualities in an all-or-nothing manner; the degree to which you have developed each one could be charted somewhere on a continuum. On the bottom end, the four factors are weak; at the top end, you are in control.
