Beginning with the end in mind

One of my favourite thought leaders, Stephen Covey has a famous saying:

‘Begin with the end in mind’.

Beginning with the end in mind is good strategy in planning any changes or projects you want to make. Sometimes in projects you have to plan for an end, which is far into the future.

A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to have a guided tour around a local sand quarry. Sand is very common in East Cheshire, in my garden I only have to dig about a foot down and I can see sand.  On the tour I was amazed at the size of the quarry, the miles of conveyor belts used to transport the sand around the site and the giant equipment needed to dig up the large quantities of sand.

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This quarry supplies pure white sand used to produce float glass. There is so much expanse of white sand that you feel as if you are in a desert or on the moon.

During the tour I asked the guide how long had they been extracting sand from the quarry and he answered 80 years but there are only a few years left. So what happens then I asked, well he knew exactly what will happen. In 1994 when they last applied to extend the quarry they had to show plans of how it will look when the quarry is closed.

They have plans that show the size of the lakes (one lake will be 2km long), the contours of the land and the footpaths through the wildlife areas – when the work is finished it will be beautiful. Every step has been planned to the end result.

1994 was a long time ago when thinking about the end in mind, as its now 2015!

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In my last blog I talked about one of the simplest things to do for a project is to create a list/plan. When you start your plan, think about the end point, where you want to go to, no matter how far ahead in time that end point may be. You may change your plans and route along the way but your end goal should always remain the same.

To keep the end in mind you must always remain focussed on the final goal and everything must work towards this, as Stephen Covey also says…

‘The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing!’

…and as I always say - in the words of that great authority - Forrest Gump!

‘If you don’t know where you are going, then you probably won’t end up there’

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