“Start with the end in mind.” ― Stephen R. Covey
A young soldier wakes up in his army barracks one morning and begins acting very strangely.
He spends all his time searching, looking under, in, behind – everywhere- in an obsessive search for something. When his commanding officer asks what is going on, the soldier says, “Sir, I’m looking for a piece of paper.”
“Did you lose it?” “No Sir.”
“What is it?” “I don’t know Sir.”
“Well what does it look like?” “I don’t know Sir.”
After a lot of fruitless questioning like this, the officer gives up. Meanwhile the soldier keeps searching everywhere.
Finally, after a few days of incessant searching, the officer sends the soldier over to the psychiatrist who asks, “Well, what seems to be the problem?”
Again, the soldier says, “Well, I’m trying to find a piece of paper.”
As the psychiatrist asks him questions the soldier goes through all the papers on the psychiatrist’s desk, looks in the wastebasket, on the shelves, under the rug and so on.
He continues to search everywhere for the paper, incessantly.
Finally, after several days of this, the psychiatrist gives up and says, “Well, son, I think the Army’s been too rough on you.
I think we had better give you a psychiatric discharge.”
He fills out the discharge form, and as he hands it over, the soldier says excitedly, “There it is!”
The lesson?
Assume you have already reached your goal.
Become the person who has reached the goal.
Now start working backwards to make it happen.
(Source of story: Transforming Yourself – by Steve Andreas)
+ Ravi Peal-Shankar
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