We may be very busy, we may be very efficient, but we will also be truly effective only when we begin with the end in mind.

People who exercise their embryonic freedom day after day, little by little, expand that freedom. People who do not will find that it withers until they are literally ''being lived'.' They are acting out scripts written by parents, associates and society.

In addition to self-awareness, imagination and conscience, it is the fourth human endowment-independent will-that really makes effective self-management possible. It is the ability to make decisions and choices and to act in accordance with them. It is the ability to act rather than to be acted upon, to proactively carry out the program we have developed through the other three endowments. Empowerment comes from learning how to use this great endowment in the decisions we make every day.

If you carefully consider what you want to be said of you in the funeral experience, you will find your definition of success.

Most of us spend too much time on what is urgent and not enough time on what is important.

At some time in your life, you probably had someone believe in you when you didn't believe in yourself.