Top o’ the Mornin’ to Ya!
TLDR: Begin with the end in mind means having a clear vision of where you’re headed, but you need multiple endings – both big picture goals and intermediate milestones – to stay motivated and make progress toward your Kingdom Family Leader calling.
Got my sailing hat on today! It’s already 60 degrees here in Minnesota this morning, so we’re launching the sailboat and I am fired up. There’s a nice breeze out, lots of overcast, and you can see that red sun from the wildfires still happening up here.
What?
Yesterday I did all the preparation – gear lube, checking parts, changing shrouds and spreaders, got gas, extra spare parts, strapped the ladder onto the trailer. I’ve got everything I need all lined up.
That’s today’s topic: Begin with the end in mind. It’s simple in a day-to-day format – I’m launching the boat, I’ve done it a few times, I know what I need to get the boat in the water, delivered down the bay, mast up, sails onboard.
But as we look at life and the bigger purpose, the bigger Kingdom Family Leader role, there’s a lot more vision that goes into begin with the end in mind. That’s Habit Two in The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.
Why?
We want to make that vision reachable and attainable, kind of like our W.A.Y. S.M.A.R.T. goals. We want to make it realistic and achievable, but we also want to make it stretchy, challenging, and big. It has to be big enough to motivate us and drive us.
I coach with a lot of people who say, “I got this goal and I go after it for a couple days, then I get detached from it.” They haven’t been visualizing it, they haven’t set up the intermediate milestones along the way.
A lot of times, this is like having an example or model that is out of sight. If you’re looking at a target that appears too far – “I’m gonna be like Tony Robbins” – well, that just doesn’t feel realistic or connectable. The key word here is “appears”. We have to have those milestones in between, those progress points of what’s the next end, the next goal and target where we’re heading. Then “appears too far” becomes possible.
Lesson
Begin with the end in mind means I’m heading this way, and if I’m gonna be Tony Robbins, what do I need to do next? What steps do I need to put in place? What are the victories? What are the learnings? What knowledge do I need?
In Kingdom Family Leader terms: What do I need to do to expand my territory? What do I know about? What am I concerned about? What do I have influence over? We set those in place for our path.
As we go along the way, we may find that we don’t want to be Tony Robbins – maybe we want to be Billy Graham instead. In the case of Kingdom Family Leader, we find and develop our own vision, our own direction. We use things for inspiration and create our own combination of them.
Apply
Begin with the end in mind. What is your end? Where are you headed in life? Or what’s your next end – the next couple months, a year, couple years away that you’re headed for? And what’s the big end? We’re eternal beings. . . so. . .
Today’s vision is all going to change, but we’ve got to continually come back to it and review the vision. That’s part of the life planning process we use in our Kingdom Family Leader approach.
Think about your ultimate vision for you, your family, your business, your Kingdom impact. Then work backward – what intermediate goals need to happen to get there? What’s your next milestone? What’s your one-year vision? Your five-year vision?
Without the end in mind, we’re just drifting. With it clearly defined, every decision can be evaluated against whether it moves us toward or away from that vision.
What’s your “end in mind” – both your next milestone and your big picture vision? Share in the Doobly Doo below!
You be blessed!
Habit 2: Begin With the End in Mind – Your Vision for Kingdom Impact
