Begin With the End in Mind

If teens aren't clear about where they want to end up in life, about their values, goals, and what they stand for, they will wander, waste time, and be tossed to and fro by the opinions of others. Help your teen create a personal mission statement which will act as a road map and direct and guide his decision-making process.

When we begin with the end in mind, we have a personal direction to guide our daily activities, without which we will accomplish little toward our own goals. Beginning with the end in mind is part of the process of personal leadership, taking control of our own lives.

All things are created twice. We create them first in our minds, and then we work to bring them into physical existence. By taking control of our own first creation, we can write or re-write our own scripts, thus taking some control and responsibility for the outcome. We write or re-write our scripts using our imagination and conscience.

There are three major aspects of our personal and business management. First is leadership - what do I/we want to accomplish? Second is management - how can I best accomplish it? Third is productivity - doing it. According to Peter Drucker and Warren Bennis, "Management is doing things right; Leadership is doing the right things."

A starting point in beginning with the end in mind is to develop a personal mission statement, philosophy or credo. It will help you focus on what you want to be (character), do (contributions and achievements) and on the values and principles upon which your being and doing are based. The personal mission statement gives us a changeless core from which we can deal with external change.

Viktor Frankel developed a philosophy called "Logotherapy". Logotherapy helps an individual detect his unique meaning or mission in life by reexamining his personal vision and values to assure they are based on principles and reality.

We must reexamine the center of our life. Our center is the source of our security, guidance, wisdom and power. Making people or things outside ourselves important places ourselves at the mercy of mood swings, inconsistent behavior and uncontrollable changes of fortune. Being self-centered is too limiting - people develop poor mental health in isolation.

By centering our lives on correct principles, we create a stable, solid foundation for the development of our life support factors and embrace and encompass the truly important areas of our lives. Successful relationships, achievement and financial security will radiate from the principle center.

The principles we base our lives on should be deep, fundamental truths, classic truths, or generic common denominators. They will become tightly interwoven themes running with exactness, consistency, beauty and strength through the fabric of our lives.

In developing your personal mission statement, you can use your creative ability to imagine life milestones such as birthdays, anniversaries, retirement and funerals. What accomplishments would you like to celebrate? Visualize them in rich detail.

You can make your mission statement balanced and easier to work with by breaking it down into the specific role areas of your life and the goals you want to accomplish in each area.

If you find your actions aren't congruent with your mission statement, you can create affirmations to improve. An affirmation should have five ingredients: it should be personal, positive, present tense, visual and emotional.

You can also use visualization techniques.

Affirmation and visualization are both self programming techniques that should be used in harmony with correct principles.

Mission statements can also be made for families, service groups and organizations of all kinds.

A family mission statement is an expression of its true foundation, its shared vision and values.

Organizational mission statements should be developed by everyone in the organization. If there is no involvement in the process, there will be no commitment to the statement. The reward system must compliment and strengthen the stated value systems.

An organization may have an all-encompassing mission statement, and each location, or even each team, may have their own. However, they should all dovetail with each other.

If the mission statements of your family and organization dovetail with your personal mission statement, and you use those statements to keep your end in mind, you will accomplish your goals more quickly and easily.

Be Proactive

Being proactive means thinking and acting ahead - basically, this means using foresight. It's a great method for avoiding more work down the road but also can be extremely important for averting disasters, planning well for the future and for instituting systems at work, in study, and at home that make life easier for not just you, but others as well. Many of us look to proactive people as the instigators of action and creative ideas in society. Here are some suggestions for helping you to become a more proactive person.

Being proactive is the key to unlocking the other habits. Help your teen take control and responsibility for her life. Proactive people understand that they are responsible for their own happiness or unhappiness. They don't blame others for their own actions or feelings.

HOW TO BEING PRO ACTIVE

1. Self Reflect, look at yourself and ask some questions:
   
   • What kinds of tasks do or don't come your way regularly? For example, at work, at home, during study etc.
   • What kinds of tasks come in large groups?
   • What kinds of tasks need immediate attention when they arrive?
2. Examine critically how you might perform those tasks more efficiently. Before the next rush:
   • Create a plan, procedure, checklist or routine to accomplish the task.
   • Recruit and instruct others to assist with an urgent or large task.
   • Gather information you will need to perform a task, or if necessary information comes from a flow of people who bring the tasks, create a script, checklist, or form to capture it consistently.
   • Look for steps in the process to eliminate, consolidate, or shorten.
3. Try to prevent problems from ever arising. This means tackling possible failings in advance to prevent them from becoming a reality. Get into the habit of taking precautions and developing fallback plans.
4. Develop a mindset that looks to solve problems instead of dwelling on them. Here’s how:
   • Define the problem (what is it exactly?)
   • Decide what needs to happen to overcome the problem and how you’re going to do that; and
   • Get on with it!
5. Get and stay ahead of less-urgent, day-to-day tasks. Doing so means that they'll be out of the way when rushes come and will not be worrying you unnecessarily. Pay particular attention to preventative maintenance, whether that means checking the fluids in your car, restocking your pantry, or setting aside a bit of money in savings each week. A little effort up front could save you from a larger crisis later.
6. Know which tasks are priorities and which can wait. Write out daily lists of tasks and head the list, ‘I will do’ and not ‘to do’. Boldly cross off each item as it is achieved. Keep this list close at hand and let it direct your actions. If it goes too long without crossing anything off, reassess what you are doing to make sure that you do finish the tasks listed on it.
7. Eliminate altogether any task that is truly unnecessary. Some things do not need doing, or do not need to be done by you. Do not waste time on them and do not allow a misplaced sense of guilt lead you into thinking that somehow you are responsible for them. If tasks are unnecessary, they will not add to your effort and are thus, a waste of energy. Be ruthless in making this assessment about the value of a task.
8. Evaluate your procedures and processes as you use them. What works and what does not? Make notes for improvements, and incorporate those improvements during the next lull. Discard anything that does not work but take care to note when something is in need of tweaking and adjust it accordingly so that it does work.
9. Try to anticipate needs. Are rushes seasonal? Are there extra activities associated with certain times of the day, week, month, or quarter? Can you prepare in advance? Look ahead and do not be afraid of the unknown. A small amount of future stability can be self-generated by planning ahead and being ready for those things over which you do have some control.
10. Try to anticipate things you will need to know. Can you learn a new skill ahead of time? Can you apply a skill you already have in a new way? Watch the trends around you; keep up-to-date by reading and continuous learning. Proactive people are successful because they are immersed in unfolding history as well as understanding the lessons of the past.
11. Look for ways to automate routine tasks. Computers can manipulate data in all sorts of ways. Even having a template or a standard plan of action can save time. If you work in a team context, delegation is also a form of automation, in that knowing the best person to do a task will automatically result in its being done to the best level possible, removing it from the pile of "to-do's". Thus, have in place a system that automatically moves tasks to those best suited to them.

TIPS

• Although time spent specifically planning or organizing is not time spent on a necessary task, a little planning can save a lot of time down the road. Do not overlook it with the excuse that it is wasted time; you will regret not having a plan to follow later and will truly waste time going back over old ground.
  
  
• The opposite of proactive is reactive. If you find yourself "fighting fires", or reacting to problems only after they crop up, take a good look at what is wrong!

Warnings

• Don't get so caught up in planning that you fail to act (i.e. paralysis by analysis). A plan does not need to be watertight, only indicative and motivating. You can always return to it as time goes on and add more. There is no such thing as perfection and trying to reach this at the commencement of a plan is wasted effort.
• It is only possible to anticipate so much, so be ready to react, too, if something unexpected comes up. Flexibility is a key positive trait of a proactive person. Being proactive means anticipating and preparing for all possible outcomes, not controlling your future.

(From :http://www.wikihow.com/Be-Proactive;http://www.education.com/magazine/article/Ed_7_Habits_Successful/)