How will I measure my life?

I recently read Clayton Christensen's "How Will You Measure Your Life"?  Christensen is a business professor, most well known for his theory of disruptive innovation, set out in his book "The Innovator's Dilemma". 

I once had the privilege of hearing him in person, and he was a very very compelling speaker.  Not because he was particularly charismatic - in fact, he spoke softly and slowly, and shuffled around uncertainly - but because his message and demeanour conveyed a strong sense of caring for his audience.

In the epilogue to "How Will You Measure Your Life?", Christensen suggests that the reader do three things.  First, figure out who you are - a life purpose, if you will - and picture what that likeness is.  Second, commit fully to working towards that likeness.  Finally, measure how you are progressing towards that likeness.  He calls this "likeness", "commitment" and "measurement".  I think of it as "who do I want to be", "what will I do to get there" and "how do I know I'm getting there".

The New Year is always a good time to take stock!  So, what do I want to see when I look at myself?  Like most people, family's important to me.  Family members play different roles, according to their strengths.  To my family, I would like to be someone who can share wisdom and be a coach, especially to my children.  Not wisdom that I generate myself, because I make lots of mistakes, but wisdom that comes if I walk closely with Him, and which He teaches me through my mis-steps and life's challenges.

Yet wisdom that is cold and clinical is unappealing.  So although I am not, by instinct, a naturally loving person, I would like to be someone who at least works hard to be loving, and marries that kindness with wisdom.  While spontaneity is no doubt more appealing, I'd like to think that earnest albeit contrived effort can be attractive.

What about work?  I've found that it's much simpler to be the same person wherever I am, rather than have to put on a different persona in different environments.  So I want to be the same person at work as I am at home.

So whether it's work in my office or in a church friend's home or in the HDB rental blocks or in my own home, I'd like to be the same person - someone who walks closely with God, and pro-actively looks to help others by sharing the lessons God teaches me from my past mistakes.

Now - what do I need to do to be this person?  Life is pretty packed.  There are so many things that scream for my attention.  So I think the first thing is - get rid of some stuff.  Here's an analogy - I have a rough rule that I cannot have more than a dozen t-shirts at one time, because if I have more than a dozen, I can't see the bottom of the pile, and I end up only ever wearing the 5-6 T-shirts on the top of the pile anyway.  Even if there may be really nice ones elsewhere in the pile, they never get the chance to surface.  So if I get a really nice new T-shirt, I get rid of an old one.  Then the new one gets a chance to be seen when I open my drawer, and worn :D

Here's another analogy I heard yesterday at church.  Before you start planting the next season's crops, you plough the ground.  The ground's all patted down, firm and smooth, set in place from all of the previous season.  Now you gotta break it up, tear it up, pick up and throw out the stones and pebbles which have been embedded in the soil.  And now - the soil has *space* for the roots of the new plants to grow deep and strong, so that when the sun comes up, they won't wither away.

In the same way, if I want to make a new and productive change in my life, I need to throw out some old stuff, I need to be prepared to tear up some parts that have been embedded and patted down.  Then the new stuff has space to anchor itself enduringly.

What can some of those things be?  Let's say you want to make charity work part of your life in 2018.  Or you want to make it a point to walk closely with God, and want to come to church and cell regularly, or just want to know His direction for you more clearly.  Or you want to be fitter.  Or you want to spend more quality time with your kids.  Very few of us have lives that are so free of clutter that we can just add a chunk of new stuff in.  We gotta throw out something, and be prepared for our present patted down lives to be torn up. 

So here's the testing point - are we prepared to do that?  Otherwise let's face it, we're not going to be able to add that good new thing to our lives.  Maybe it's TV time, computer games, plain old lazing around time that needs to be culled?  Maybe it's something previously baked into our schedule that's been blocking the new thing, and that needs to be decisively torn up and out now,
*once and for all*.  Otherwise we'll just go sailing on, and come 2019, we'll be just where we are today, or somewhere we didn't want to be!

Here's to *really* committing to a new and better 2018 - Happy New Year!

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