Habit 2 is not the most well developed of Covey’s Habits. It’s particularly difficult in the context of the “big picture” life goals that Covey aspires to teach. Most healthy people aren’t stuck on achieving a singular End and so any one End is hard to visualize. For the longest time, I didn’t know what I would do with myself if I failed to become an accomplished purple-haired stripper or a hit man. I tried being an architect for a while, then an artist, and then a writer and nothing’s really stuck. Instead, I recommend we have several disparate End scenarios lined up to which we can still aspire. One of mine involves giving into alcoholism and settling down in a trailer park with a stray cat. In another, I have my own talk show and I interview Oprah Winfrey every day. In yet another, I am leggy, dark-skinned and work at a hotel in Bahamas.
Covey also attempts to illustrate “begging with the end” in terms of Character development through the example of visualizing your own funeral. Who of your family, friends, colleagues and spiritual community would speak at your memorial? And at would you want those people to say about you? What Covey doesn’t quite articulate is that you don’t have to be dead to worry about people shit-talking on you. That being said, we should never pass up a good visualization exercise.
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