Seven Habits of Highly Effective People

and keep a diary of their experiences.
The results are very revealing. They start writing to parents to tell them how
much they love and appreciate them. They reconcile with a brother, a sister, a
friend where the relationship has deteriorated.
The dominant, central theme of their activities, the underlying principle, is
love. The futility of bad-mouthing, bad thinking, put-downs, and accusation
becomes very evident when they think in terms of having only a short time to
live. Principles and values become more evident to everybody.
There are a number of techniques using your imagination that can put you in
touch with your values. But the net effect of every one I have ever used is the
same. When people seriously undertake to identify what really matters most to
them in their lives, what they really want to be and to do, they become very
reverent. They start to think in larger terms than today and tomorrow.
Visualization and Affirmation
Personal leadership is not a singular experience. It doesn't begin and end
with the writing of a personal mission statement. It is, rather, the ongoing
process of keeping your vision and values before you and aligning your life to be
congruent with those most important things. And in that effort, your powerful
right-brain capacity can be a great help to you on a daily basis as you work to
integrate your personal mission statement into your life. It's another application
of “Begin with the End in Mind.”
Let's go back to an example we mentioned before. Suppose I am a parent
who really deeply loves my children. Suppose I identify that as one of my
fundamental values in my personal mission statement. But suppose, on a daily
basis, I have trouble overreacting.
I can use my right-brain power of visualization to write an “affirmation” that
will help me become more congruent with my deeper values in my daily life.
A good affirmation has five basic ingredients: it's personal, it's positive, it's
present tense, it's visual, and it's emotional. So I might write something like this:
“It is deeply satisfying (emotional) that I (personal) respond (present tense) with
wisdom, love, firmness, and self-control (positive) when my children
misbehave.”
Then I can visualize it. I can spend a few minutes each day and totally relax
my mind and body. can think about situations in which my children might
misbehave. I can visualize them in rich detail. I can feel the texture of the chair I
might be sitting on, the floor under my feet, the sweater I'm wearing. I can see
the dress my daughter has on, the expression on her face. The more clearly and
vividly I can imagine the detail, the more deeply I will experience it, the less I
will see it as a spectator.