Remember the Beginning | The McAllister Code

As I read over the second of Stephen Covey%u2019s habits the other day, there was something so familiar about the concept. It wasn%u2019t just that I%u2019d read the book once before because I can remember reading it on the train ride from Sarasota to LA in 2003. I was remembering it on a different level, as if I had experienced it somehow.

I have engaged in the process of writing a personal mission statement. Stephen Covey is exactly right when he says that it will help you gain clarity. The power of visualization is a wonderful thing. Just taking the time to think through what is important to you, identifying roles that you play and the goals you wish to accomplish, is of tremendous help in reducing stress and inducing a feeling of effectiveness.

Yet even that wasn%u2019t what I was remembering so I continued to read through the chapter.

In it Covey wrote about being a principle-centered person and how it could help you achieve true balance in life. People tend to center their decisions and goal making around things that are outside of themselves.

I remembered someone else telling me that. The experience I was having wasn%u2019t from reading the book; it was someone sharing the insights with me. As I looked over the centers upon which people base their lives, I distinctly remembered two %u201Cpeople%u201D telling me about them, my head going back and forth between them as they played a tennis match of ideas.

%u201CHusbands.%u201D

%u201CWives.%u201D

%u201CFamily.%u201D

%u201CWork.%u201D

%u201CMoney.%u201D

%u201CPoverty.%u201D

%u201CPossessions.%u201D

%u201CRecession.%u201D

%u201CPleasure.%u201D

%u201CPain.%u201D

%u201CFriends.%u201D

%u201CEnemies.%u201D

%u201CChurch.%u201D

%u201CSelf.%u201D

When they stopped on %u201CSelf,%u201D I remember them looking at me. I could only discern their big, black, almond-shaped eyes, my memory still hiding their faces in fog, as if they were waiting for me to fully understand what they were getting at. Slowly, they started again, talking about principles and the centered life.

%u201CSecurity,%u201D one of them said, %u201Cis more than just your physical safely. It is your self esteem, the realization of your true worth.%u201D

%u201CGuidance,%u201D the other one said, %u201Cwill be offered to you by many.%u201D

%u201CEven us,%u201D the taller one said.

%u201CYes, even us,%u201D the shorter one agreed. %u201CBut, ultimately, to be a complete and balanced person, your guidance will have to come from you.%u201D

I remember thinking that I was doomed.

%u201CThat is why you use principles to center yourself,%u201D the shorter one continued as if he could read my worried mind. %u201CPrinciples are natural laws. They are unshakable, immovable, the perfect reference point from with to find guidance.%u201D

As he said it, I knew that it was true, and a comfort overtook me. Even then, it seemed like this lesson was being more discovered than learned. As if it had been there all along, but I wasn%u2019t able to truly see it until it was brought to my attention by two really odd-looking characters that looked an awful lot like%u2026

%u201CYou%u2019ve known this all along, Steve,%u201D the taller one said, again detecting my thoughts. %u201CThat is the essence of wisdom. All humans have access to it, but not all of you choose to tap into it.%u201D

All of you? I was starting to remember more of the sensation of having the conversation, but I couldn%u2019t remember actually having it.

%u201CLiving by principles instead of outside forces gives you a much more direct line to wisdom,%u201D he continued, %u201Cthe ability to use discernment, judgment, and understanding.%u201D

%u201CCombined with your wisdom, guidance, and security, living a principle-centered life gives you much more power by which to act and create what you are meant to create.%u201D

%u201CDo what you are supposed to do.%u201D

%u201CBe who you are supposed to be.%u201D

As they leaned in and their faces came into focus, the two aliens asked in unison, %u201CWhat was your mission again, Steve?%u201D

I smiled back at them. %u201CTo write the world.%u201D

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