How will you measure your life?

This question has fascinated me to no end, and I often find myself reflecting on it. It’s not optimization that interests me as much as regret minimization.

Let's dive into my review of How Will You Measure Your Life? by Clayton M. Christensen.

1) Answer This: Who Do You Want to Become?

This was an interesting question for me to approach. I realized that I never really asked myself who I want to be but always asked where I want to be.

After giving this some thought, I came to a few conclusions:

• I want to be dedicated to improving the lives of others. I want to get started in entrepreneurship because of my own frustrations in the corporate world. I believe in creating value to help people, solve good problems and create something lasting. I'm dedicated to serving others and strive to provide life-changing opportunities for my people. I have always been the happiest helping people.

• I want to be grounded by my spirituality and seek clarity through meditation, practice, and believing in myself and becoming a better version of myself.

• I try to be selfless, kind, understanding, and forgiving. I don’t believe in actions that directly/indirectly harm someone.

2) Be committed

Starting is half the work done and perfection is a trap. Momentum kills procrastination.

I can't stress this enough. Being committed to your aspirations of who you want to be is paramount to your purpose. Don't simply define your purpose without any mode of acting on it.

So what does it mean to be committed to your purpose?

I'll keep it simple here: if you're ever at a moral, ethical, or other type of crossroads in life, remind yourself of who you want to be. Remind yourself of your values and why you have them to begin with. If you act against your values, either they aren't your true values or you've lost sight of them. Being committed is about being aware of your values and making decisions in favor of them.

Do the work to discover your values, be intentional and self-aware

Life is too short to not.

3) Find the Right Metric to Measure Your Life By

The last part to defining and acting on your purpose is to define how you're going to measure it. Just like a Product Manager, decisions should be data-driven and supported with your purpose KPI (key performance indicator). Now that I've defined who I want to be and how to stay committed to it, I can put a number behind my efforts. Talk about satisfying the analytical itch!

Think of life and decisions in terms of probabilities. It helps drive decisions and objectively manage fears.

After outlining who I want to be, I realized quickly what my metrics are: Adventure, self-discovery, curiosity, and helping others.

I can live without the best-branded clothes and will be okay to wear worn-out shoes but I cannot live without a sense of adventure about my life.

I regress in comfort.