One of the essential habits in Stephen Covey's 7 Habits of Highly Effective People is #2:
"Begin with the end in mind."
The premise behind this habit is that before starting something—a career, a hobby, a marriage, a life—you should project yourself into the future.
By doing so, whether three years or five (or even all the way to your 80th birthday), you can lay out a map for how you want to live your life or complete a project.
I love this habit, and the idea behind it, but it's also the only habit out of the seven with which I struggle. Why?
Because it's overwhelming! Sometimes I don't even know what I want life to look like tomorrow, let alone in 47 years. (God, is 80 really that close?)
It's also overwhelming because at times, the daunting idea I have in my head seems so impossible that I become paralyzed, unable to do anything.
I know I'm not the only one.
The negative thoughts creep in with a seeming inability to solve them.
- I can't uproot my family while I pursue a master's degree—it's too many years out of work!
- I can't possibly go to medical school—it'll practically leave my wife working as a single mom!
- I can't throw all my energy into a marketing business—we could be left destitute and homeless!
- I can't coach people to improve their health—I'm still trying to do that for myself!
The solution?
Start.
Decide on the very next small thing you can actually do.
Julia Cameron calls this "filling the form"—taking the next small step instead of leaping ahead to some giant thing you might not ready for.
Using the examples from above, you can...
- Put in an application to see if you even get accepted to school
- Take a biology course to get your first prerequisite needed to attend medical school
- Call one business in your area to see if they need a freelance marketing expert to help them
- Help one person you know develop one new healthy habit
It's the oft-cited cliché that a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
You have to put a destination into the GPS. But then you must focus on the directions and look for the next turn.
If the end in mind is too big to tackle, focus instead on the tiniest first step.
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