Moving Forward With a Driving Passion

This week, in our class Introduction to Entrepreneurship, I learned moving forward with a driving passion. It was great, absorbing, and in-depth analysis and guidelines to my coming to be an effective leader.

One of the resources was Steve R. Covey’s “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.” He goes to render a description of each one of them and how to implement them in our lives. The most meaningful for me is the second in his list: “Begin with the end in mind.” All my life, I have been trying to practice this habit, but here is an organized concept. Covey explains beginning with the end in mind means using an image or paradigm of your character at the end of your life as a frame of reference or criterion by which everything is examined. In other words, he suggests that every step in my life or each part of my life should be reviewed in the context of the whole -the long-term view. So, I need a clear vision of my destination, which I believe I have. And where I am now, that requires a little more work surveying my status.

Covey bases the concept of beginning with the end in mind on the principle that all things are created twice. There is a mental or first creation and a physical or second creation. This is fantastic because it is consistent with my background in architecture, where you design from a concept with a program defining the needs your final product must satisfy. It also is compatible with my actual job as a builder that starts with a set of drawings, which are a graphic depiction of the designer team, and end with a tangible building. The creator of the universe followed the principle by creating things spiritually before they were created physically: “…they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, and every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew…” (Genesis 2:4-5). In our case, the first creation can be either by conscious design or because of outside pressures.

The second habit is exactly the instructions book that I was looking for; that is why it is meaningful to me. I like, also the declaration that an effective way to get into the habit of beginning with the end in mind is writing my mission statement. When I center my life on correct principles, I know what my mission statement might look like. It will be like a lighthouse in my journey to success because it will allow me to visualize my finish line and see myself crossing it victoriously.

I believe the 7 habits will help me to fill my life with passion and purpose. At the same time, I seek to achieve both my private and public victory because my private victory will bring me from Dependence to Independence by learning to be proactive, by beginning with the end in mind and to put first thing first. Also, it will help me to achieve my public victory by training me to think win/win, seek first to understand, then to be understood, and by teaching me team-work principles. Habit 7 will guide me to keep myself in good condition in all dimensions: physical, spiritual, mental, and social or emotional.

I have no doubts that implementing the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People in my life will put me in the path of living my life with passion and a purpose. I practice in my routine some of these principles, but know I have the whole picture and plan before me. Let us go on!