Habit 2 of [[The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People]]

# Summary

Know where you are going before you set out. Covey asks you to picture your own funeral and what you would want family, friends, colleagues and your community to say about you. Those answers describe what matters most to you, and they should guide what you do today.

# Key ideas

- **Two creations**: Everything is created twice, first in the mind and then in reality. If you do not design your own life, other people and circumstances design it for you.
- **Leadership before management**: Leadership decides which wall the ladder leans against. Management is climbing it efficiently. Efficiency on the wrong wall is wasted effort.
- **Personal mission statement**: A written statement of who you want to be, what you want to do and the principles you stand on. It works like a personal constitution for judging decisions.
- **Your centre**: People centre their lives on work, money, family, a spouse, possessions, pleasure or themselves. Each of these is unstable. Covey argues for a centre of lasting principles, which gives steadier security, guidance, wisdom and power.
- **Roles and goals**: Break the mission down by the roles you hold (parent, partner, professional, friend) and set long-term goals for each.

# In practice

- Do the funeral exercise and write down what you would want said.
- Draft a personal mission statement and revise it over several weeks.
- List your main roles and one long-term goal for each.