Covey Habit 2 summary PDF

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Covey Habit 2 Summary Covey’s second habit is entitled, “Begin with the End in Mind”. This chapter focuses on just how to start thinking about the things that matter most to you. He begins by painting the picture of your own funeral and then asking you about what you would hope your friends and family would say about you once you’ve passed away. By understanding the potential and desired significance of your own life, you will be better able to create the habits that will lead to the desired results. Next, he begins to demonstrate the idea in that all things are created twice. What this means is that people knowingly or unknowingly have mental pictures/models for the things they create as well as the physical manifestations of those things. By being conscious of the fact that the theoretical models exist allows you to be better able to modify and perfect it, thus creating a greater likelihood that the physical model will come out as desired. He then leans on the knowledge of the previous chapter to say that you can now be a proactive designer of these mental models. In doing so you not only are the “programmer” but you also are writing the code. Afterwards, he lays out the foundation for the four pillars of the way we express the most important values of our lives: security, wisdom, guidance, and power. These four things demonstrate how we view the world and what kind of influences we can have in the world around us. He then goes into some examples of different things people put at the center of their lives: spouse, family, money, work, possessions, pleasures, friends/enemies, church, and finally the self. Although some of things might have a noble cause, they can ultimately lead to a life filled with various problems. His argument lies in the idea that we should live a principle-centered life and that these principles will never fail us so long as we stick to them. In this way our lives won’t be dependent on others. Rather, they will be the product of the principles we actively chose to govern our lives....