Habit 2

The topic for the second habit is Principles of Personal Leadership. Just reading the title, you would know that it would be mostly about three words, principle, personal and leadership. Stephen R. Covey started the book with letting me imagine, seeing me in a casket with all my friends, relatives and acquaintances being there. He asked what I would like to hear from the speakers. Then I realized that of course I would like them to say my strengths and the real kind of person I am. But what am I really as a person three years from now? I would probably have graduated already in college and maybe taking up my Master’s while having my business on the side. I think almost everyone would like to have great things written in their eulogy because it shows how they lived. So how would I want to live? I guess this habit would help me open my eyes to what I really want.

Covey says that we should begin with the end in mind, which I really agree because working without knowing the end is like working continuously without any purpose. We should know the purpose of what we are doing and as the cliché goes, everything has its purpose. To have an end in mind, we should envision what we want and not what others tell us to want. Each day of our lives contributes in a meaningful way to the vision you have of your life as a whole and not just for the meantime. We should understand our destination because many people, though they are really busy, they are not being effective and I learned that I should not be that way. Those people are blinded to the things that really mattered most. We should know first what the meaning of success is for ourselves because it differs in everyone; we should also be efficient and effective at the same time. According to Covey, all things are created twice which means that there is mental or first creation and physical or second creation. We should work with ideas and act within and enlarge the borders of our Circle of Influence.

As I...