Meaning in Life & Personal Constitution

 

I was really impressed this week by Clayton M. Christensen’s talk, “How Will You Measure Your Life? (Harvard Business Review, July-August 2010).  It was highlighted in this talk how essential it is to measure what is truly important to you, not just what you want to accomplish and do in your career.  He gave an experience of when he was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford and was really busy.  He decided to dedicate an hour every night to “reading, thinking, and praying about why God put [him] on this earth.”  He spoke about how relevant this was even though he was pursuing incredibly vigorous university studies.  He later stated, “I apply the tools of econometrics a few times a year, but I apply my knowledge of the purpose of my life every day.”  Knowing why we are here and where our focus should be will help us to find meaning in our lives no matter what our academic or career pursuits may be.  He also explained how important it is to continue learning and to learn from everyone around you – even if you don’t think they are as smart as you or don’t have much to offer.  He explained, “If your attitude is that only smarter people have something to teach you, your learning opportunities will be very limited.  But if you have a humble eagerness to learn something from everybody, your learning opportunities will be unlimited.”  It reminded me of the conference talk this last general conference that Elder Clark Gilbert gave.  He quoted Christensen talking about how important humility is in the learning process.

 

One of my favorite principles in the Launching Leaders video was when Jim Ritchie talked about having a personal constitution.   A personal constitution is, “a written description in an “I Am” format where we picture ourselves in a finished state, having become that particular value.”  We need to be able to visualize ourselves becoming those values so that we can become that type of person.

 

What I loved so much about these principles is that I was able to teach them to some of my children this week.  I have a daughter that is in college and she is trying to figure out what to major in and which direction she would like her life to go.  I was able to share with her some of the things that Clayton M. Christensen said and they were very helpful to her.  I have another child that is trying to work on goal setting.  I shared the principles about the personal constitution with him and it helped him decide on what he wanted to focus on.

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