Begin With the End In Mind - Tips to Make Your Life More Meaningful

What would you change if you knew you would be dead in 1 day? Would you spend more time at work, pouring over budget figures, and trying to figure out how you were going to make this quarter's numbers? Would you read just 1 more e-mail from a complaining co-worker? Would you check your voicemail one last time? What would your obituary say about your life?

If you're like me, I'd bet you wouldn't do anything work-related. In fact, I would bet you would see if there was any way to extend that 1 day into 6 months or more, because there is SO much you have yet to accomplish. You would vow to make a difference in your family, with your friends, in your community, maybe even in the world. Maybe you'd see if you could sky dive, climb Pike's Peak, or snorkel the Great Barrier Reef.

If you knew when the end was, I'd guess you would do all those things you've been meaning to do, but that you just never had the time to do.

Guess what? You won't know when the end is, so you better start living like you were dying today! Dr. Steven Covey, in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People talks about how we each must begin with the end in mind. This is as valuable advice for your life, just as it is valuable for goal setting, projects, or anything else you do in your work.

Take the time to write your personal mission statement. Franklin Covey has a great free tool to help you do this, located at http://www.franklincovey.com/missionbuilder/

I strongly encourage you to take 30-40 minutes to build your personal mission statement, your team mission statement, and share this with others that you feel may benefit from this life clarity.

Now that you have this clarity what will you do to make your life better on a daily basis? My goal is to pack the rest of the book full of little things you can do to take control of your life and Make It Great!I hope you are able to glean one or two nuggets that you can immediately put to work in your family, your life, your world, and that after finishing this book, you are ready to Make it Great! Think about the one thing you can you do to make your life better right now?

Then do it right now and do whatever it takes to Make It Great!

Phil Gerbyshak leads a team of people as manager of an IT Help Desk in Milwaukee, WI, and finds that sharing his knowledge is a crucial component for success as a leader and as a person. Phil's personal philosophy is paraphrased from Tim Sanders' fantastic book Love is the Killer App: "Share your knowledge, your network, and your love. The rest will follow."

Feel free to contact Phil at http://makeitgreat.org or call 414.640.7445 anytime.

---

What We Believe We Create - Love is the Creation

I once was told by the Angels that our concept of Love would fit on the head of a straight pin and the size of the Universe... Read More

The Best Gift to Give Yourself and Others

I'm often asked the question, "How can I best help my children, spouse, family member, staff member, friend etc. improve/change?" In fact that might be the most... Read More

Life is Art

In my years teaching people to be successful, I have seen that basically people break their lives down in to two major parts: Wealth-building and the rest... Read More

To Thine Own Self

Direct Answers - Column for the week of December 6, 2004Someone gave me a bit of advice, and I'm doing my best to get my head wrapped... Read More

A Lifetime In Love

We let ourselves love but are afraid to say I love you. We constantly allow our emotions to run deep but why do we hold back on... Read More

Inside Secrets On How To Stay Afloat During Tough Times

Do you find yourself asking questions when tough times come like, 'Why has this come my way?' or 'What did I do to deserve it?' It has... Read More

Essential Ingredient

Direct Answers - Column for the week of September 15, 2003I have a couple of questions for you. If a person no longer feels they love their... Read More

Create Your Way Out of It

When life has you feeling less than happy, and you would like to see things different than they are, here are some tips that can help you.I... Read More

How to Put the Sizzle Back in Your Relationship with These Seven Goal Setting Tools

Goal Setting and Relationships?That is not as weird as it may sound. Consider the following definition of a goal: "A goal is a future incidence or event... Read More

I Hate My Computer and Other Inspirational Thoughts

The New Year has not started out very well for Yours Truly. After the first day of the new year, my life went south for the rest... Read More

Life is About Choosing

Back to our youth days, we were taught that by being discipline and studying hard we would get good grades and would surely pass the school without... Read More

Circles On The Water ? The Impact You Make On People?s Lives

When you were a child, or maybe even when you were older, did you ever toss a pebble into the water and watch the ripples that emanated... Read More

Get Out Of Your Own Way

One of the biggest obstacles to our self growth and personal development is.................ourselves!No, make that THE biggest obstacle.When we say that we want to make changes, but... Read More

Are YOU Ready for Bonza Bottler Day?

BONZA BOTTLER DAY is any day when the date and the month have the same number. Bonza, I'm told, means "excellent" or "really great" in Australian, and... Read More

Magical Wreaths

Wreaths are like rings. They represent the Universal Circle ("Let the circle be unbroken ?" as the song lyric goes) and also the idea of circulating love,... Read More

Trusting Yourself and Others

How come, as women, we always second-guess ourselves? Are we not confident to choose a mate that has the characteristics of what we yearn for or start... Read More

Anamchara - Making Sense of Life

Many successful persons advise you start your day with a list of what you intend to do and achieve during your day. This is extended to include... Read More

The Secret Of Lasting Personal Change

Why do so many of us end up frustrated when we try to improve our personal reality?Why do diets end up in gained weight?Why do some people... Read More

Just Think of Kyle!

This morning at 5:22am to 6am, I was overwhelmed. Overwhelmed is an understatement considering I am still crying and it's like 7:15am. I am at work typing... Read More

Selfish Beings

Trouble, trouble, trouble. Nothing but trouble. The night before, I was just talking to a friend-cum-feng-shui master about the direction of my life. The horrible things that... Read More

Learn From Failure and Confirm with Success

Both failure and success are good... if you know what their specific purpose is.Of course we know that success is good, but why? Success is good because... Read More

Where You Can Find Sympathy

Ask any of my kids and they'll tell you immediately that you'll find it in the dictionary between "sh-" and "syphilis". Wasn't that absolutely cruel and unkind... Read More

Have You Lost Focus?

Matthew 5:14-16You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a... Read More

The HUGE Deposit of Diamond in You

Something happened to me some years back that is worthy is sharing with everybody all over the world. When I started running my business, things were very... Read More

Improving Your Self Esteem

Often in our society, we are bombarded with the lives of celebrities. We can end up feeling that if we are not part of the rich and... Read More

Who is My Mother?

Text: Matthew 12:46-50, Mark 3: 31-35, Luke 8:19Mother's Day has passed. All the dinners have been served, flowers and gifts delivered. The question remains- Who is My... Read More