Managing Yourself: How Will You Measure Your Life?

How’s this for a light question on a Friday afternoon?The other day, while I was in Grand Central Station in New York City, parched and looking for water, I came across this fantastic book: On Managing Yourself – eleven articles from Harvard Business Review. They are short, insightful and impactful. I thought it could be enlightening to highlight one a week for a while.

This first one is by Clayton M. Christensen: How Will You Measure Your Life? He espouses that management can be one of the most noble professions. It enables people to understand how best to allocate resources which, when people apply the principles in their personal lives, can help them attain happiness at homeKey questions he poses:How can I be happy in my career?

How can I be sure that my relationship with my family can be an enduring course of happiness?How can I live my life with integrity?Simple questions without always easy answers. Simple questions that require a strength, rigor and sense of adventure to live into the answers.Just as in business, so too in life, it is important to be guided by a sense of purpose and be willing to balance short-term gain with long-term viability.

He says: “The key is to define what you stand for and draw the line in a safe place…The marginal cost of doing something wrong ‘just this once’ always seems alluringly low. You don’t see the end result to which that path leads.”

How long and hard have you thought about your purpose and what is your commitment to it? How do you define success on your terms? What are your non-negotiables on this path? What are triggers that entice you to stray? How do you stay focused?