Call & Response

The Call: Begin with the End in Mind — Jessica

I’ve never read Stephen Covey’s The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. But somehow I’ve come to know what a few of the habits are. Not that I’m good at putting them into practice. I should probably read the book — it might make my life better or easier, at least.

But Covey’s second habit is one that has stuck in my mind since I first heard about it. “Begin with the end in mind.” Of course…what plain common sense!

Habit 2 is based on imagination–the ability to envision in your mind what you cannot at present see with your eyes. It is based on the principle that all things are created twice. There is a mental (first) creation, and a physical (second) creation. — Stephen Covey

The Response: Recipes for Writing — Cheryl

When I was staff writer for The Denver Catholic Register, most of my articles got written two to three days before we went to press; many were created on Monday morning, before we headed out to the printers at about 2 pm. My husband often remarked that my opening sentences were perfect. The problem was that I couldn’t begin writing the article until I had crafted that perfect first sentence, and that sometimes took hours. Once it was down, though, I could crank out a 750-word story in about 15 minutes.

Thank goodness I don’t work that way anymore. Now, I just begin with a thought and see where it takes me. I guess I could claim that I follow Stephen Covey’s advice of beginning with the end in mind, because I generally know that I want to write something to publish on one of my blogs. From there, I begin searching for a topic. Nothing gets the juices flowing like the thoughts of others. Tell me what Leo Tolstoy said about art, or what Madeleine L’Engle thinks about angels, and my fingers are ready to meet those keys.