They decided to give Confidence a hard time. They constantly teased her. They forced her to do terrible things. It was so terrible that Confidence lost Self-Esteem. When Self-Esteem wanted to start some classes, Confidence said they wouldn’t be any good.

Then one day, Peer Pressure introduced Confidence to Doubt. He wanted to ruin Confidence, but Peer Pressure said he couldn’t yet. Self Esteem couldn’t understand what was wrong with Confidence. Confidence now hung around with Depression, Low Self-Esteem, and Overeating.

These girls were friends of Peer Pressure. Self-Esteem no longer had any friends. She no longer felt good about herself. She went to see her pastor. Pastor Good Words told her how to talk to Confidence. He introduced her to his daughter, Encouragement.

Encouragement and Self-Esteem went to find Confidence. Self Esteem hoped she wasn’t too late.

The girls found Confidence in a stupor. She was no longer a vibrant, happy young girl. There were dark circles under her eyes. She had gained so much weight from eating that she couldn’t move. Encouragement gasped and Self-Esteem cried. She begged Encouragement to do something. Encouragement began to hug Confidence. She kissed her and loved her. She told her that she was a beautiful young lady who had a lot going for her.

Encouragement held Confidence so tightly that Self-Esteem thought she would smother her. Confidence began to cry. As she cried, she seemed to lose weight. Then a bright light suddenly glowed from Confidence and she began to smile.

Peer Pressure and his friends didn’t like what Encouragement was doing and tried to attack her. They hit at her and pulled at her, but they couldn’t pull her away from Confidence. Then Confidence began to speak.

“Get away from me, Peer Pressure. Take your friends and go. You no longer have any power over me.” Confidence was now a glowing light. She and her friends made sure that Peer Pressure and his gang never bothered anyone in their town again.

If you feel that Encouragement is not your friend, then try to find Encouragement in yourself. Self-Esteem and Confidence will follow.

Beginning with the end in mind is the habit of keeping your day to day focus on your whole life instead of on day to day things. What do you want people to say about you after your life is over? What kind of person do you want to have been. What is the legacy you want to leave? Beginning with the end in mind is the process of developing a clear answer to this question. This is your purpose in life. When you have a clear vision of your overall purpose in life, it is easy to solidly say “no” to some things and “yes” to others. It becomes easier to plan your year or this month or week or day. You constantly ask yourself: Does this align with what I ultimately want to do?

Just as you would never build a house without a blueprint, if you want to live a certain kind of life or have a certain kind of relationship or family or corporate culture, then you need to have a plan for how the whole thing is going to be put together and you need to review it often, using it often to say “No” to some things and “Yes” to others. If you want to make a change in your life, one of the first things you have to do is dedicate some time and come to an understanding what you really want, and feel it, write about it, create it in your mind first. The clearer vision you have of where you want to go, the more likely you are of getting there. It has to be created in your mind and your heart first, then you create it in reality.

By doing this, you become a Strategic Thinker. Your choices and decisions are not only expedient from an operational point of view. They also reflect your long-term strategic objectives. As a result the capability and capacity of your business increase steadily, turning your Business Vision into reality.