If you had to define metrics to measure life…

You may be nodding when I say, some questions in life never lose their charm in whatever shape or form it comes. Whether it is Steve Jobs inspiring us with “If today were the last day of my life, what would I want to do”; or it is Robin Sharma stirring up emotions about “Who will cry when you die”; or it is listening to Mitch & Morrie’s conversation on love, life & beyond “Because if you’ve found meaning in your life, you don’t want to go back. You want to go forward”. Any number of books on Ikigai, life, purpose, relationships, and career surely creates a flurry of emotions. Most of the time these emotions don’t turn into actions. This may be because solving the challenges in our life requires

1. A deep understanding of what causes what to happen
2. Framing a strategy that we can work with
3. Executing the strategy through hundreds of everyday decisions about where we spend our resources (time/money/energy).

Photo by Darling Arias on Unsplash

And so, we choose the easy path. We pick the jobs which give us immediate gratification and begin to accept that it is not realistic to do something we love. We may start on the path of compromise and never make it back. Many of us thrive in the intensity of a demanding job, one that we believe, we enjoy. And thus, we leave this too important a question to chance.

In his book “How will you measure your life”, Prof. Clayton shares his personal and professional life experiences about building a strategy for getting back to doing what we truly love. The book has ‘actionable strategies’ on three of the most pressing questions — “Finding happiness in your relationships”, “Finding Happiness in your career”, and “Living with integrity”. As Indra Nooyi would sum up, Work-Soul integration.

Here are some great lines from the book worth pondering over:

1. The trap that many people fall into is to allocate time to the one who screams the loudest and their talent to whoever offers them the fastest reward. Your family & friends rarely shout the loudest.

2. The motivation theory separates job satisfaction into two factors: ‘Hygiene factors’ like job title, compensation, job security, work conditions, company policies, and supervisory practices. ‘Motivation factors’ like challenging work, recognition, responsibility, and personal growth. Often times only the hygiene factors are met and remember compensation fall under the hygiene factor.

3. Switch between deliberate and emergent strategies to tap into unanticipated opportunities. Real strategy in our lives is created through hundreds of everyday decisions about where we spend our resources (time/money/energy). To get a fact check, draw up your resource map to see how you divvy up your resources.

4. When it seems like everything at home is going well, you will be lulled into believing that you can put your investments in these relationships onto your back burner. It is like the bad capital that seeks growth before profits without creating enough provision for the future.

5. ‘The job to be done theory’ — Work hard to understand the job to be done in your significant other’s life. Ironically many unhappy relationships are often built upon giving each other what we want to give without understanding what they really need.

6. It is easier to hold up your principles 100% of the time than 98% of the time. Integrity 100% of the time.

Would love to hear from you “How will you measure your life” and “What is your strategy”. How will the CEO of your life steer this company ahead?

#ItIsAlmostMonday