'What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.' --- Oliver Wendell Holmes

2.1 What it means to "Begin with the end in mind"

Begin today/now with the image, picture, or paradigm of the end of your life; before starting any task, project or goal,?one should have a clear understanding of the desired outcome or result.?By visualizing the end goal, one can better plan and prioritize the steps necessary to achieve it.

Each part of your life - toaday's behavior, tomorrow's behavior, next week's behavior, next month's behavior - can be examined in the context of the whole, of what really matters most to you. By keeping that end clearly in mind, you can make certain that whatever you do on any particular day does not violate the criteria you have defined as supremely important, and that each day of your life contributes in a meaningful way to the vision you have of your life as a whole.

To begin with the end in mind means to start with a clear understanding of your destination. It means to know where you're going so that you better understand where you are now and so that the steps you take are always in the right direction.

2.2 "Begin with the end in mind" is based on the principle that all things are created twice

There's a mental or first creation, and a physical or second creation to all things.

Before something can be created in the physical world, it must first be created in the mind.

2.3 In our personal lives, if we do not develop our own self-awareness and become responsible for first creations, we empower other people and circumstances outside our Circle of Influence to shape much of our lives by default.

Whether we are aware of it or not, whether we are in control of it or not, there is a first creation to every part of our lives. We are either the second creation of our own proactive design, or we are the second creation of other people's agendas, of circumstances, or of past habits.

2.4 Leadership is the first creation

Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.

2.5 Rescripting: Becoming your own first creator

2.6 A personal mission statement

The most effective way I know to begin with the end in mind is to develop a personal mission statement or philosophy or creed. It focuses on what you want to be and to do and on the values or principles upon which being and doing are based.

Changeless sense of who you are, what you are about and what you value.

Once you have that sense of mission, you have the essence of your own proactivity. You have the vision and the values which direct your life. You have the basic direction from which you set your long- and short-term goals. You have the power of a written constitution based on correct principles, against which every decision concerning the most effective use of your time, your talents, and your energies and be effectively measured.

2.7 At The Center & Identifying Your Center

Where do you stand? What is at the center of your own life?

The ideal, of course, is to create one clear center from which you consistently derive a high degree of security, guidance, wisdom, and power, empowering your proactivity and giving congruency and harmony to every part of your life.

2.8 A Principle Center

In general, being "principle-centered" means that a person's decisions and actions are guided by a set of core principles or values, rather than being driven by external factors such as social pressure or personal gain.

2.9 Writing and using a personal mission statement

"Ultimately, man should not ask what the meaning of his life is, but rather must recognize that it is he who is asked. In a word, each man is questioned by life; and he can only answer to life by answering for his own life; to life he can only respond by being responsible." --- Frankl

Our meaning comes from within.

Personal responsibility, or proactivity, is fundamental to the first creation.

Each of us has an internal monitor or sense, a conscience, that gives us an awareness of our own uniqueness and the singular contributions that we can make.

To seek some abstract meaning to our lives out in our Circle of Concern is to abdicate our proactive responsibility, to place our own first creation in the hands of circumstance and other people.

As proactive people, we can begin to give expression to what we want to be and to do in our lives.

2.10 Imagination & Conscience - the right side of the brain

Sometimes we are knocked out of our left brain environment and thought patterns and into the right brain by an unplanned experience. The death of a loved one, a severe illness, a financial setback, or extreme adversity can cause us to stand back, look at our lives, and ask ourselves some hard questions: "What's really important? Why am I doing what I'm doing?"

But if you're proactive, you don't have to wait for circumstances or other people to create perspective expanding experiences. You can consciously create your own. Perspective expanding experiences are those that challenge our assumptions, beliefs, and worldviews, and help us see things from a different point of view.

There are a number of ways to do this. Throught the powers of your imagination, you can visualize your own funeral, your twenty-fifth and then your fiftieth wedding anniversary, your retirement from your present occupation, assume you only have this one month/week/day to live.

When people seriously undertake to identify what really matters most to them in their lives, what they really want to be and to do, they become very reverent. They start to think in larger terms than today and tomorrow.

2.11 Write down your personal mission statement

Identify a project you will be facing in the near future and apply the principle of mental creation. Write down the results you desire and what steps will lead to those results.