Habit 2 – Begin With The End In Mind

“For many, the test or hard moment for Habit 2 comes when you are tired and lazy – just going with the flow.  Some new project or meeting or day begins and you simply do not do the mental, emotional, and spiritual work inside yourself to get a senses of how you would like it to end up.  This doesn’t mean you decide all the exact details of how you want the meeting or day to end up.  But rather, you do decide what you want the spirit of that day or meeting and the quality of the relationship to end up like.  You feel deeply committed to worthy end results and yet no action has been taken.” – Stephen R. Covey

Habit 1 – Be Proactive
“In the most fundamental sense, Habit 1 is the awareness of this space between stimulus and response – between what has happened to us and our response to it. Next to life itself, this self-awareness and our freedom to choose, to direct or lives, is our most precious gift and power.

The hard moment or test of Habit 1 is to be aware of and to choose to live your own life. It is seeing yourself as the programmer, not as a program being acted out. Regardless of the social and psychic scars you may carry inside, regardless of how others treat you, regardless of the disappointments and strains and setbacks which may blindside your finest intentions, you see the space between all that and your freedom and power to respond to it.” – Stephen R. Covey

“Between stimulus and response is a space. In this space lies our freedom to choose our response. In these choices lie our growth and our happiness.” – Unknown

“We must look at the lens through which we see the world, as well as at the world we see, and understand that the lens itself shapes how we interpret the world.”

• Stephen A. Covey

“The Character Ethic, which I believe to be the foundation of success, teaches that there are basic principles of effective living, and that people can only experience true success and enduring happiness as they learn and integrate these principles into their basic character.”
– Stephen A. Covey

“A restaurant that’s too small for its following creates pent-up demand and can thrive as it lays plans to expand.

A restaurant that’s too big merely fails.

There are occasional counterexamples of ventures that fail because they were too small when they gained customer traction. But not many.

It pays to have big dreams but low overhead.”
– Seth Godin

“Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.”
– Napoleon Bonaparte

“I hope I shall possess firmness and virtue enough to maintain what I consider the most enviable of all titles, the character of an honest man.”
– George Washington

“I hope I shall possess firmness and virtue enough to maintain what I consider the most enviable of all titles, the character of an honest man.”
– George Washington

“Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.”
– Napoleon Bonaparte