This famous Stephen Covey quote has quite a lot to teach us about how to get to where we want to go: "begin with the end in mind". Pretend you wake up tomorrow and everything is exactly how you want it. What are you doing? What have you accomplished? What do you look like? How do you feel? How do you sound? Describe the quality of your relationships, your level of energy and sense of well-being. What would you be doing with your life? If you are going to end up somewhere by choice rather than by chance, what "end" will you create in your mind's eye?

Questions to Consider

What is your current reality? What would you change if you could blink and turn around and it was different? What are you putting up with at the moment? Are you open or closed off to your surroundings? What things are frustrating you about yourself, work, relationships, health? What are your valuable? What makes it onto your list of top priorities?

What are your desires? What are your preferences? What do you really, really want for yourself right now in your personal and professional life?

Create Change

Change can come in the form of what we engineer or in the form of what happens to us, quite out of our control. The power of choice is ours. Reflect on your current reality. Be brutally honest...

Then go to town and create a compelling vision for your preferred future.

Author, Michael Losier, designed a helpful tool called the clarity through contrast list. First, he develops a list of all the things he does not want. Then he takes that list and re-writes or re-frames them into positive language written in terms of what he does want. Use positive language to formulate your vision.

Focus on the positive, on desired outcomes to drive transformation and accomplishment. In my experience, the re-frame to the positive, and the development of clarity of vision and desire based on one's values, is a powerful force for creating change. Clarity of vision acts like a magnet. It draws one forward from current reality to preferred future. Such vision helps to clarify what actions need to be taken and what needs to change to get to that desired place. Walking out a new path takes wisdom, courage, determination and a clear vision of where you want to go or end up!

As Stephen Covey so eloquently phrases it, "you must begin with the end in mind"!