Setting Goals: Begin with the end in mind

I recently read The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey, and this book inspired this post.

In the past, I thought a lot about goal setting, but a puzzle was always missing.

How do you correctly value your goals? How do you know which ones are right?

I often find myself setting unimportant goals and then realizing that achieving them did not really matter that much.

This book answered that and many other questions about goal setting, so I am going to share some of these tips with you.

What does the phrase “Begin with the end in mind” mean?

The notion of Begin with the End in Mind is taken from the book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey.

It’s Habit number 2 of the 7 and means to begin each day, task, or project with a clarity of vision regarding your desired direction and destination.

Once you know where you want to end up, you can consider the actions you need to take or the goals you need to achieve to reach your chosen destination.

The author asks us first to visualize our funeral.

What would you like people to say about you? Your kids, your husband/wife, your coworkers?

What character would you like them to have seen in you?

You can then make certain that whatever you do on any given day does not violate the criteria you have defined as extremely important.

Why is having an end in mind important?

It is incredibly easy to get caught up in the business of everyday life. Following other people on social media and seeing them achieve and pursue their dreams can also make you confused.

Now you are trying to emulate their goals and their lifestyle. But is that something YOU really want?

People often find themselves achieving empty victories, at the expense of things that matter most.

Few people would say at their deathbed that they missed not having a bigger home or a more expensive car, but many regret the time they did not spend with their kids or parents.

We lose track of the most important things in life, as we are surrounded by materialism and consumption everywhere we go.

So the first task is to find your definition of success. Perhaps money, titles, cars do not really matter to you.

What are the values and principles you believe in?

When you “begin with the end in mind,” you’re essentially mapping out where you want to go and how to get there.

This habit is about identifying where we want to go and who we want to be. It means defining the personal, moral, and ethical guidelines that represent the life we want to live.

7 Habits of Highly Effective People

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey is a self-improvement book.

It is written on Covey’s belief that the way we see the world is entirely based on our own perceptions.

In order to change a given situation, we must change ourselves, and in order to change ourselves, we must be able to change our perceptions.

In this post, I am talking about the Habit 2.

The importance of goal-setting

If you live life without purpose and a clear vision, you will almost certainly not end up where you want to be.

Setting goals is crucial for several reasons. It enables you to:

Have Direction and Focus

Drifting through life without any direction is a sure way to end up disappointed in the end.

Things do not just happen. You need to make them happen.

Goals enable you to remain focused on what truly matters in your life.

Be Motivated

Goals keep you motivated and committed. When you are faced with difficulties as we all our at some point, they keep you on track and remind you of the values you believe in.

Monitor your progress

Goals allow you to measure your progress and celebrate your achievements.

Without them, you will be guided by other people’s ideas of what your life should look like.

They can mean well, but ultimately only you can decide how you want to spend your life.

Make correct decisions

Goals help you make decisions in your everyday life. When you have them constantly in mind, you guide your life in the right direction.

Correct goal-setting steps

An empty notebook with the title My Goals

Personal Mission Statement

The concept of “Beginning with the End in Mind” involves picturing your ultimate goals and aspirations. It’s about defining what success looks like for you and making decisions that align with that vision.

There are a couple of questions you need to answer:

What do I want to achieve in my personal and professional life?
How do I want to be remembered?
What legacy do I want to leave behind?

By answering these questions, you can visualize your life in the future and let that vision guide you.

Your mission statement can include various aspects you find important in your life.

For instance, you may want to say that you want to be a good parent, that you want your kids to remember how much you loved them and supported them.

That you prepared them for life, made them independent, that you created a lot of happy memories for them.

Now when you put that down in your statement, that means that your parenting decisions will be influenced by your ultimate goal.

That you want to make your kids independent, loved, and supported.

Covey calls this a personal statement, but ultimately it is just a clear vision of your future in various aspects of your life related to family, friends, and work.

We tend to just have goals for our career and money, but it is important to have clear goals for your personal life as well.

Setting clear goals in various aspects of your life

Put on paper all your ultimate goals for different aspects of your life.

To achieve anything, you first need to know what that is.

So be clear and include as many details as you can when setting your goals.

Create subgoals, a roadmap to how you are going to achieve them

Creating smaller goals is important because the ultimate final goals in life cannot be achieved without clarifying how you are going to get there.

For instance, to create independent and responsible kids, you may want to start introducing chores and teach them to take care of your pet…

To achieve your ultimate goal of a happy marriage, you may want to define steps on how you are going to maintain that relationship and connect with your spouse when life gets tough and busy.