Crossroads of life has created many thoughts in people who read the articles in the last two weeks. This alone is good evidence to think of the seriousness of Habit two of the 7 Habits of Highly Effective people process. And the habit says "Begin with the end in mind" …
The most important aspect of this is that it does not matter in what age of life you are, you can still think about the "End in Mind." So here you are, whatever you are, young, old, middle aged, you have your whole life before you. You're standing at the crossroads of life and you have to choose which paths to take:
Many people say I am so many years old, but I have heard few people saying I am so many years young. [e.g. one may say, I am 40 years old while another would say I am 40 years young.] It's all about how you look at life. Recently I met a very dynamic gentleman at a function just crossing 86 years in his life. I am not going to say he is 86 years old for sure, but young and energetic in his own ways. I still remember what he said to me "Ameer, my best years are still ahead of my life and I would like to live for more than 100 years" [I hope he is reading this article too].
Habit one of the Highly Effective people states, make choices [be proactive], once you make the right choices as per your values, you need to own the consequences. These choices you make today can shape you forever, especially at these crossroads...
Habit two teaches us to have a clear purpose in life and having an end in mind means one need to have a clear mission statement drafted.
Who's in the lead?
The other reason to create a vision is that if you don't, someone else will do it for you. As Jack Welch, former legendary CEO of one of the most admired Corporates in the world put it, 'Control your own destiny or someone else will."
'Who will?' you may ask, perhaps your friends or parents or the media. Do you want your friends to tell you what you stand for? You may have fine parents, but do you want them to draw up the blueprint for your life? Their interests may be far different from yours. Do you want to adopt the values portrayed in soaps, magazines and on the big screen?
By now you may be thinking, 'but I don't like to think about the future so much. I'd like to live in the moment and go with the flow.' I agree with the live in the moment part. We ought to enjoy the moment and not have our heads too far in the clouds. But I disagree with the go with the flow part.
If you decide to just go with the flow, you'll end up where the flow goes, which is usually downhill, often leading to a big pile of sludge and a life of unhappiness. You'll end up doing what everyone else is doing, which may not be your end in mind at all. 'The road to anywhere is really a life to 'nowhere'.
Without an end in mind of our own we are often so quick to follow anyone who is willing to lead, even into things that won't get us far. It reminds me of an experience I once had at a road race.
Some other runners and I were waiting for the race to start, but no one knew where the starting line was. Then a few runners began walking down the road as if they knew. Everyone, including me, began following. We just assumed they knew where they were going. After walking for about a mile, we all suddenly realized that like a herd of stupid sheep, we were following some idiot who had no idea where he was going. It turned out that the starting line was back right where we had begun.
Think about this very seriously how many times this has happened to us and still we don't learn from it. Having a clear end in mind means not to get trapped in these things. Let's look at more interesting things next week and till then have a wonderful week. |
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