Before building a house, you first need to picture what the finished home will look like. That way, you can figure out what steps to take, what materials you’ll need, and how to make a solid plan.
This idea doesn’t just apply to building houses; it applies to life, too. Stephen Covey, a well-known American business thinker, once gave this advice in his book Begin With the End in Mind. In other words, imagine how you’d like to be remembered at the very end of your life. When you picture that, it becomes clearer how you should live now and what kinds of things you should fill your days with.
Of course, none of us knows exactly when that “end” will come. But as psychologist Dr. Laura Carstensen once pointed out, “The closer people believe they are to the end of life, the more they focus on the present.” How we spend our time depends a lot on how much time we think we have left.
So if you’re unsure of what to do next, try imagining the person you want to become in the end. And if you remind yourself that time might be shorter than you think, you might feel more motivated to act today.