How will you measure your life?

I found something in Harvard Business Review that made me cry - and not because it's a case about supply chain!

Not but seriously, this article by Harvard Business School professor Clay Christensen is one of the best discourses on how to apply your MBA to lead a successful life. Not career - life. And the best part is you don't need the degree to apply the principles (but you may need dictionary or b-school student to understand what he's saying...if you've read his book "The Innovator's Dilemma", you know what I mean). Here are my favorite nuggets:

This paragraph especially caught my attention, because I've fallen into this trap once or twice this summer: "People who are driven to excel have this unconscious propensity to underinvest in their families and overinvest in their careers—even though intimate and loving relationships with their families are the most powerful and enduring source of happiness." Thanks to my family and friends who've been there to remind me what things are most important in my life! The last thing I want is to lose who I am while trying to fit a corporate mold. If you see that happening, do me a favor and stop me, will you?

This sentence hit home because of how true it has been through the course of my internship: "[People] build self-esteem by doing things that are hard and learning what works." That sums up my internship nicely. I've never done anything so difficult. I've put in more hours on more details than ever before in my life. But you know what? I think I found what works. And I now feel 100% more confident about myself and my abilities. If my internship had been easy, I can guarantee I wouldn't feel that confidence. It came from working hard until I found what works.

This last quote makes more sense in context. The author was the star of his college basketball team. To everyone's surprise, his team made it to the championship game (England's equivilient to the NCAA championship). The game was on a Sunday. He'd made a commitment years before, as a teenager, not to play sports on Sundays. So he sat out the game. His team won without him, and he learned a valuable lesson: "It’s easier to hold to your principles 100% of the time than it is to hold to them 98% of the time. If you give in to “just this once,” you’ll regret where you end up. You’ve got to define for yourself what you stand for and draw the line in a safe place."
It sounds like something out of a YW lesson, but it's a true principle. Life is so much easier when you stick to your standards every time.

Enough from me. Check it out for yourself and let me know what you think.

P.S. He's LDS. And a Seventy. No wonder it sounds like something out of a YW lesson!