Successful Business Women Begin With The End In Mind

Stephen Covey’s 2nd habit from his 7 Habits of Highly Effective people is “Begin with the End in Mind.”

By this he means that all things are created twice – they must first be created in your mind, before they can become a physical reality. So if you want to lead a more successful and balanced life, become an inspirational and exceptional leader, or develop your team or business, you must do the mental work first.

You must create movies in your head where you’re the main character, where you’re actually being the type of person you want to be, where you’re doing what it takes. Even if at this stage you’re not sure of what it takes!
You need to feel how it is to be that you in the future, so that the pain of not doing those things or becoming that person drives you to take action to move towards that end.
If you don’t put in this work first, you can never hope to succeed in reality!

However in my experience, just thinking about it initially, or creating a movie in your mind i.e. beginning with the end in mind, is not enough – you need to keep it in mind constantly – you need to continue with the end in mind!
You need to think about it and ensure it gets through to your conscious mind on a regular basis. You need to persistently remind yourself of your end goal or vision so that you feel motivated to take the necessary actions for this to become a reality – for it to be created again!

If you liken it to a harvest – if you plant seeds, look at the seeds and focus on them and expect a harvest then you’ll wait a long time!

However if you create the harvest in your mind first, then plant the seeds and keep the harvest in mind and focus on what you need to do to create the harvest, then you have a much better chance of success, because you’ll be taking other actions to move you forwards rather than relying on blind faith or wishful thinking.

In order for you to ‘keep the end in mind’ you need to create physical pictures, charts and diagrams – for yourself, your life and your business – to help you focus on what you want and where you want to be. It’s all too easy otherwise to get bogged down in where you are now and not take the steps necessary for you to succeed.

If you can do this as a female entrepreneur and business leader and you can help others to do it too, you have a much better chance of making your mental creation a reality.

All successful women in business, indeed all successful people I know (or know about) do the mental work first – they begin with the end in mind. But they also combine this with other strategies to keep the end in mind and help everyone else to do the same.

When they do this they inspire, motivate and support problem solving and action taking; they review mistakes and constantly hold themselves and others to account.

That’s a sure fire way to succeed!