Measuring your life

Every once in a while, we pause and take a look at our life, wondering how others might remember us, taking stock of what we’ve accomplished. We’ll think of our degrees and our jobs and our accomplishments. But a friend recently quoted a story in church that made me think a little deeper.

When Clayton M. Christensen was diagnosed with cancer, he had one of those life-measuring moments. He was a Rhodes Scholar, the Kim B. Clark Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School, the originator of an important theory in business and marketing, a White House Fellow and a sought-after consultant. He had a lot of occupational accolades he could feel proud of—but he also had the wisdom to use the right yardstick to measure his life (emphasis added):

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.

There are a lot of great insights in the full article, which was originally a speech given at the Harvard Business School, and next month will be published (expanded, of course) as a book, How Will You Measure Your Life?.

But when my friend shared that thought in church, I instantly thought about not just friends and neighbors whose lives I hope I’ve touched, but the people who are the most important part of my life: my family. As a mom, my top priority is helping these individuals become better people. And as long as I remember to do that, I think it doesn’t matter what measuring stick anyone else uses: I will have done the most good, earned the biggest achievements and enjoyed the most success that anyone can hope for.

What do you think? What does this quote mean for you?

Photo by Vitor Antunes