The 8th Habit

Express Your Voice -- Vision, Discipline, Passion and Conscience

When you study the lives of all great achievers-those who have had the greatest influence on others, those who have made significant contributions, those who have simply made things happen -- you will find a pattern. Through their persistent efforts and inner struggle, they have greatly expanded their four native human intelligences or capacities. The highest manifestations of these four intelligences (mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual) are: for the mental, vision; for the physical, discipline; for the emotional, passion; for the spiritual, conscience. These manifestations also represent our highest means of expressing our voice.

Vision is seeing with the mind's eye what is possible in people, in projects, in causes and in enterprises. Vision results when our mind joins need with possibility. As William Blake once said, "What is now proved was once only imagined." When people have no vision, when they neglect the development of the mind's capacity to create, they fall prey to the human tendency toward victimism.

Discipline is paying the price to bring that vision into reality. It's dealing with the hard, pragmatic, brutal facts of reality and doing what it takes to make things happen. Discipline arises when vision joins with commitment. The opposite of discipline and the commitment that inspires sacrifice is indulgence-sacrificing what matters most in life for the pleasure or thrill of the moment.

Passion is the fire, the desire, the strength of conviction and the drive that sustains the discipline to achieve the vision. Passion arises when human need overlaps unique human talent. When one does not have the passion that flows from finding and using one's voice to serve great purposes, the void is filled with insecurity and the empty chatter of a thousand voices that drive the social mirror. In relationship and organizational settings, passion includes compassion.

Conscience is the inward moral sense of what is right and what is wrong, the drive toward meaning and contribution. It is the guiding force to vision, discipline and passion. It stands in stark contrast to the life dominated by ego.

These four words-vision, discipline, passion and conscience-essentially embody many, many other characteristics used to describe those traits we associate with people whose influence is great, whether known to many or few.