Indeed the safest road to Hell is the gradual one--the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts. ——Screwtape Letters
At the end of the year, I finished reading How Wil You Measure Your Life. I almost missed the book because the title was a bit like something from Chicken Soup for the Soul. But I took a lot of notes after reading it.
From working hard in the workplace to starting a business, to now having children of your own, many of the ideas and examples in the book resonate with people like me.
The author of this book is Christensen, a professor at Harvard Business School and a master of management thought.
He also has a well-known book called The Innovator's Dilemma. He uses the theories taught in Harvard Business School classrooms, not only to explain the problems in enterprises, but also to manage and predict his own life to achieve the fullness and happiness of life.
At the beginning of the year, the topics discussed in this book fascinated me. This is also the question that I have recently brought together all kinds of doubts: business, career, family... Where is the answer?
You need to find your own answer
If you take the time to find your purpose in life, then I promise, that will be the most important thing you learn.
Why can birds fly? With wings and feathers tied, can a person fly? Such an easy answer is obviously tempting.
Most of us, like this, wish that experts like the author would give answers directly, rather than thinking for themselves and finding a way.
The authors point out that such a method is very dangerous, and it is unrealistic to hope that experts will give a specific drug.
The author argues that good truth is universal.
Combining Prioritization, balancing plans against opportunities and allocating resources, we can form a corporate strategy as well as a strategy for personal growth. Even if your strategy is already in shape, you will still know new things, discover new problems, and face new opportunities.
Similarly, the three parts of the future "portrait", identity and ruler constitute the goal of an enterprise. Life goals are also such three components, namely the "portrait" of the future, the sense of identity and the ruler of your life. Identifying a goal and living under that goal is what the author considers the surest path.
One day if you start to feel that the "picture" you have drawn for yourself is not right, you must reconsider and choose.
You need to ask the real question
If we ask the right question, it's usually easy to find the answer.
Another reason why this book is worth reading again and again is that the author's corporate strategy is very concise and clear. There are some very classic cases, and the questions about life are also simple and simple, and at the same time can feed back to the business operation and guide us to formulate the corporate strategy.
For example, in the business world, strategy is the result of many influences – what is important to the company? How will the company respond to opportunities and threats as it grows? How to allocate the company's valuable resources?
These questions can also be used to torture one's own life problems. The key is whether you're asking the right questions.
Money, status, salary, security, working conditions, company policy... These are just by-products of happiness, not the cause of happiness. These are visible signs that friends and family can see, and if you focus only on these issues, you won't get the sense of accomplishment you want.
Life is a process, not an event
While the traditional way of thinking focuses on the past, the right way of thinking should focus on the future.
At the end of the book, the author points out that you can't treat a person as he is, but treat him as he wants to be, so that you can help him and make him the person he wants.
That's how they handle it at Harvard Business School, and it's what each of us demands of ourselves and those around us.
At the beginning of the year, some people advocate what to do with a "list of results", simply equating life and life with a series of results, such as how much money to make, make a few friends, and travel to several cities. But such an approach is dangerous. Life is a process, and the most important thing is to enjoy the process of pursuing results, to evolve, to live life in your own way.
Perhaps many people will tell you how to live, how to choose a career, how to work, how to make yourself happy out of good intentions. How do we know which is good advice and which is bad? How do we know which ones work for us and what works?
When we were kids, we all read the story of "Pony Crossing the River". Life is the process of flowing through that river, otherwise no one knows whether this water is deep or shallow for themselves.