DREIESKIVA​|Roald Kvam

“The people whose lives you touch may forget what you said, but they will never forget how you made them feel.” — David B. Haight

Many people with lived experience say the same thing: “It’s not the things we did, but the things we didn’t do in life that we regret.”
Sure, but what good does that do here and now?
Can we measure our life while we’re living it? Not just when we sum it up at the end?
Are there fixed points we can navigate by along the way?

There are measures. Some work better than others. Here are the ones that stand on the podium for me:

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Measure toward a larger mission

You can use a measure centered on YOU—that is, you kind of take the temperature of how you feel compared to how you want to feel… day by day. Where you live and act. Right now. And now. And now. And now again…

That tends to get a bit tiring and narrow, in my opinion.

I think that when we focus on something bigger than ourselves, our yardstick stretches and the purpose of our lives is strengthened. At the same time, we strengthen the role we can play—before we have even played a single minute.

For example: In my main job as Chief Business Development Officer in Motitech AS, I work within what is called “social entrepreneurship.” For us—as for many nonprofit organizations—success is not measured only by the bottom line, but equally by the mission; what we can mean for other people’s quality of life.

See? This is exactly where focusing on something bigger than YOU makes a difference. This is where your life’s purpose can be strengthened, stretched, and reinforced.

So, while you live… in motion… measure your life against a larger mission.
But first, you have to make a serious and brutally honest assessment: Where can you give your best? And: Are you giving your best?
It could be that you need to move to another platform to live out your purpose fully in relation to its potential. Whether that means your place of residence, relationships and networks, or workplace and tasks. Or that you simply need to “gear up” a bit where you live and act today.

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Measure toward good moments

Another good measure of life is to count good moments. Some count like this: Five hundred and twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes… Yes, that’s your year. Right.
But instead of counting tick-tock time, you can count smiles, laughter, deep conversations, and those good cups of coffee.
The beauty is that YOU can create good moments entirely by yourself. Independent of others. Without extra resources, special talents, or capital.

Your choice, then!

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Measure toward the lives you touch

Clayton Christensen, professor and author at Harvard Business School, shares his insight into how we can measure a life. He lifts up a truly beautiful yardstick:

“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 the disease, it’s been interesting to see how unimportant the 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.”

It’s not just a wake-up call when it comes to the final summation of life.
It’s also a beautiful way to measure life while we live it.
And it’s pretty clear!

Maybe that’s what we should focus on first and foremost—and center our lives more around this focal point:

“… people whose lives I’ve touched”

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Source and inspiration: How Will You Measure Your Life?, J. D. Meier