most fundamental application of begin with the end in…
Page 98 most fundamental application of begin with the end in mind is to begin today with the image, picture or paradigm of the end of your life as your frame of reference for the criterion I wish everything else is examined.
— from The Landing (Death) · 7 habits highly effective families Stephen covey
In the book
The question this chapter exists to answer is therefore not "how do I avoid the end?" — you can't — but "what does the certainty of the end have to teach me about the hours before it?" By the last page I will have given you the answer I myself learned far too slowly. Here is the whole lesson in a single sentence you could repeat back to me: begin with the end in mind, and the end will tell you how to spend the middle. Stephen Covey built that idea into a famous exercise, and I want you to actually do it, not just read it. — The Landing (Death)
The richest goals take your innate talents and fuel them with passion and persistence aimed at that one specific target; and treat your practice toward it as conscious action working toward that goal, never aimless motion. The most powerful framing of all is to begin with the end in mind: picture the very end of your life, the eulogy you would want, and use that as the reference point against which you measure everything else. Aim it, too, at your real strengths — look inside, find your strongest threads, and reinforce them with practice until you can build a role around them; you will recognize those gifts by three clues: the things you yearn toward, the skills you pick up unusually fast, and the work that leaves you satisfied. […] Pick the right stadiums. Choose which arenas matter to you and don't measure yourself against people excellent at what you don't value. Set goals that pull you. Make them specific and powerful, begin with the end in mind, and write them as processes you control rather than outcomes you can't. Build a system and prioritize to one thing. Make the system serve the big-picture goal, and narrow your aims to the single most important. — Goals, Action & Defining Success (Goal/Action/Success/Motivation)