Beginning with the End in Mind

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Before the author, Stephen Covey, explains what “beginning with the end in mind” means, he urges his reader to visualize their own end. By doing this, the reader self-evaluates their own life thus far. The end all judgment is death. In death, your life will be paraphrased and condensed into a manageable story—will that story reflect the person you anticipated?
To ensure that when you die you have accomplished your goals while maintaining and fostering positive relationships, you must live every day with the end in mind. This means “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. Each part of your life…can be examined in the context of the whole, of what really matters most to you” (Covey 98). To begin with the end in mind means to identify your first concerns or priorities and visualize them as your destination so that every action you make takes your closer to accomplishing what is most important to you.
What is important to us and what we construe as characteristics of a successful life both must be our first objective in any type of achievement. We may be successfully accomplishing our task, but is that task taking us closer to our endgame? “We may be very busy, we may be very efficient, but we will also be truly effective only when we begin with the end in mind” (Covey 98). This is the difference between accomplishment something well, and accomplishing the right thing well.
Management is being efficient, to make sure that you are accomplishing the given task properly. Leadership is being effective, to make sure that you are accomplishing the task that you want to accomplish. Leadership and management are the two c...

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...corporation in a large city like New York or Boston. I will have my own apartment and be financially independent, emotionally secure, and personally fulfilled with my job. I will walk down the streets of the city in a crisp suit and meet my friends for lunch, where we will laugh and drink cappuccinos.
To get there in life, I must use my principles as guidelines for my actions, and proactivity as motivation for my cause. I must transcend my competition through my unique attributes, abilities, and accomplishments. I must balance my work and relationships to make sure both get their proper amount of attention. I must use my personal mission statement, along with my conceived image of myself and goals, as the main forces that drive my every decision. I must make sure that when dealt my final quietus, my legacy left behind reflects my personal and professional success.

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