On the Way to the Mountain

Photo Courtesy of Stig Nygaard

I have been reading How Will You Measure Your Life? by Clay Christensen.  The thesis of the book is that, just as in business, you need a strategy in your personal life in order to  live the kind of life you envision.  There is a lot in this book that is worth reading, and I would highly recommend it.  You can listen to a full review of the book on my podcast at 350 Third.

In one section of the book, Christensen describes how he pictures his life strategy.  I thought the analogy was a great one.  He looks at his life as being on the road toward a mountain.  The mountain is what his life looks like as he has pictured it.  As decisions come up, he evaluates the decision with the mountain in view.  Does taking this opportunity keep me going toward the mountain, or does it take me off the main road?  Or worse yet, does it put the mountain in my rear view mirror?

There are several useful things here.  First, the exercise of writing down what your life looks like is quite useful.  For me, it’s things like freedom and autonomy.   The second is having a lens through which to evaluate the things that come across your path.

I found this particularly useful and have incorporated parts of this into my own life already.

Pick up the book.  It will be well worth your time.