Goals are something I live with daily. How about you?
They can be as simple as do the laundry or complex as completing a $14 million dollar budget. Or vice versa! Sometimes family laundry can be as overwhelming of a goal as a multimillion dollar budget. Who are we to decide individual goals and their complexity.
Franklin Covey wrote in a wonderful book called, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, in which he states that Habit 2 is to BEGIN WITH THE END IN MIND. On the website it means to:
Focus time and energy on things that can be controlled. So, what do you want to be when you grow up? That question may appear a little trite, but think about it for a moment. Are you–right now–who you want to be, what you dreamed you’d be, doing what you always wanted to do? Be honest. Sometimes people find themselves achieving victories that are empty–successes that have come at the expense of things that were far more valuable to them. If your ladder is not leaning against the right wall, every step you take gets you to the wrong place faster (franklincovey.com).
Five years ago this past week, on July 18th, I started the first day of my doctoral program (Ed.D). As every good student should do when starting a new school, I put on my school uniform (Olivet polo shirt), took a selfie in the car, and then proceeded to take my rolling backpack full of 10 books, laptop, and writing materials to find my classroom and my new cohort.
It was a hybrid program that allowed me to be on the campus of Olivet Nazarene University every month for a full Saturday and then online for the rest of the course work. At almost six decades old, it was daunting to step on the campus and to see students 10 - 15 years younger than my own children walking around, sipping coffee, and conversing about classes. What I discovered is they didn't view me as their mother or grandmother, but a fellow student seeking the same thing as them...knowledge.
The intertwining thread of this three-year degree program in Ethical Leadership was this encouraging quote...BEGIN WITH THE END IN MIND. It sustained me when my personal life was in turmoil, when my dad died, after I failed my second stats class, and wanted to give up on my dissertation. It sustained me when I had to advocate for myself to have options about staying in the degree program, and when I had to change cohorts for the final year of the program turning it into a four-year degree journey for me. During that time I worked full-time, moved twice, bought a house, reconciled my personal life, and started three new jobs (transparency alert).
To top off the journey, I graduated May 2020 during a pandemic and took on the moniker of Dr. Beverly Peterson with no pomp and circumstance. We celebrated with a weekend at the lake and photos at sunset in my regalia with my precious family...not the end in mind I envisioned when I started this journey.
Leadership is about setting goals, gaining knowledge, and beginning with the end in mind. It is focusing on the things you can control and setting a destination as to where you want to get to. In organizations, we call it strategic planning complete with inputs, outputs, analysis, and outcomes. Strategic planning is an organization's process of defining its strategy, or direction, and making decisions on allocating its resources to pursue this strategy. It's beginning with the end in mind.
So the next time you see this phrase, consider what are your goals? Are your striving to complete them? Have you changed them? Do you need to?
I highly recommend reading The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Franklin Covey.
If anything, it will help you align your thinking about leadership and possibly begin your own educational or experiential journey.
Begin with the end in mind to complete the book and then see what happens from there.
What She Said ~ Beverly
Thank you for this. It truly was EXACTLY what I needed to read today!