The speech by Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen reposted here, titled "How Will you Measure your Life?" encourages you to apply some business principles to your personal life. I know it sounds dehumanizing to consider yourself a company but he isn't talking about how much revenue growth you have year to year in terms of salary, he is talking about how you allocate your resources and your strategy/mission for your life.
I first came across this article when I peeked over at the woman I was sitting next to on the subway to see what she was reading. Harvard Business Review...interesting. Anyway, I did chat with her and I later looked up the article online.
The first time I read "How Will you Measure your Life?" I had two immediate reactions
1. I think this guy "gets" it.
2. How do I find an hour a day to reflect and pray about the purpose for my own life?
What do I mean by he "gets" it? I mean that I think it is uncommon for most people to dedicate time to thinking about the purpose of their lives. It is one of those big questions that either gets neglected in the frenzy of a busy life or one that gets ignored because there are a million easier things to do than think about the purpose of your life. I think that having a life purpose/vision/mission statement helps anchor you when life gets crazy. I think its pretty remarkable he allocated an hour a day during his Rhodes scholar life. I also generally agree with his conclusion
"Donʼt worry about the level of individual prominence you have achieved; worry about
the individuals you have helped become better people. This is my final recommendation: Think about the metric by which your
life will be judged, and make a resolution to live every day so that in the end, your life will be judged a success."
I guess since I'm advocating living consciously every day, I also need to add that it goes hand in hand with living consciously towards a purpose. I haven't followed through on my desire to spend an hour or even half an hour each day dedicated to quiet time and reflection but since I have a blog audience I am issuing a public challenge to myself to allocate a half hour each day towards thinking about how I'm going to measure my life and I'm sure it will turn into more blog posts :)
Let me know if any of you want to try this with me!
I agree about living life with purpose and doing something each day to achieve that purpose. I think its good to reflect on yourself and I do it right before bed. :)I live life trying to be helpful and kind, but you know there is some snarky in me, but not with malintent generally.
ReplyDeletehey annie, i know u dont have malignant intent :) remember that woman who avoided snark for a month? we could give that a try...start with just a week maybe.
ReplyDeletelol I don't think I could do giving up snark, it is too difficult, but we can do something nice each day for a week for someone. I don't like to think about things I can't do, but would like to focus on positive things I can do. It seems more achievable, and also how I work with kids, giving them positive behaviors. :)
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