How Will You Measure Your Life

Clayton M. Christensen, renowned Harvard Business Professor, strategy consultant, best-selling author, mentor, church leader, husband, father, and grandfather, passed away just over a week ago at the age of 67. He was an amazing man who taught a powerful lesson on how we ought to measure our lives – both through his words and through his very example he set by the way he lived his own life.

I wanted to share a little excerpt from an article he wrote that was published in the Harvard business Review back in 2010 called How Will You Measure Your Life:

“CHOOSE THE RIGHT YARDSTICK:

This past year I was diagnosed with cancer and faced the possibility that my life would end sooner than I’d planned. Thankfully, it now looks as if I’ll be spared. But the experience has given me important insight into my life.

I have a pretty clear idea of how my ideas have generated enormous revenue for companies that have used my research; I know I’ve had a substantial impact. But as I’ve confronted this disease, it’s been interesting to see how unimportant that impact is to me now. I’ve concluded that the metric by which God will assess my life isn’t dollars but the individual people whose lives I’ve touched.

I think that’s the way it will work for us all. Don’t 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.”

Incredible advice from an incredible man, who though no longer with us, lived his life in such a way that it is measured a great success because of the countless number of individual people whose lives he touched. I am grateful to have been one of those people.

~Amy Rees Anderson (author of the book “What Awesome Looks Like: How To Excel in Business & Life” )

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