Define What a Great Life Means to You

Harvard Business Review

To plan and execute corporate strategy, executives work through a series of questions to determine how their businesses can succeed. You can use a similar process to figure out how to live a meaningful life. We've created this seven-week series to show you how. You can follow along here.

When the calendar page flips from one year to the next, most of us take some time to reflect on what we’d like to do differently in the 12 months ahead. Many people make New Year’s resolutions. Fewer stick to them.

Companies also use the close of their fiscal year to review performance and refine strategy, but they tend to do it in a much more methodical way. If they’re following best practices, they have a purpose or mission statement, a five- or 10-year vision to guide them, tools to assess their portfolio of businesses and activities, and a suite of key performance indicators to track progress.

A few years ago, BCG consultants Rainer Strack, Susanne Dyrchs, and Allison Bailey began to wonder if this process could be adapted to help individuals think

more clearly about their own personal and professional lives. They created a program called Strategize Your Life, which they’ve now tested with more than 500 people, from recent college graduates to retirees, first-time managers to CEOs.

The seven steps involved are outlined in this HBR article. But we’re launching this newsletter to guide you, the members of our LinkedIn community, through them — one step per week — between now and mid-February. By the end of this series, you’ll have a one-page life strategy document to refer to any time you’re trying to make a big decision — or your next New Year’s resolution.

So why wait? Let’s get right to step one: How do you define a great life?

Any corporate strategy process starts with defining metrics for success. For instance, the organization might choose to focus on driving sales growth, maximizing profit, or having a positive impact on society.

What are the right metrics for you? Some might aim for money, fame, and power, but studies have shown that meaningful relationships are more important drivers of long-term happiness. Of course, each of us will have a different view on

what combination of things are really important in life.

Strack, Dyrchs, and Bailey recommend using the PERMA model, introduced by Martin Seligman and later developed into PERMA-V, which stands for:

• Positive emotions, or frequent feelings of pleasure and contentment
• Engagement, or being in the flow of something and losing track of time

• Relationships, or mutual feelings of caring, support, and love
• Meaning, or contributing to making the world a better place
• Achievement, or striving for success or mastery
• Vitality, or being healthy and energetic

Rate how critical each of the above elements is to you on a scale from 0 (not important) to 10 (very important). You can also add your own categories, such as

autonomy or spirituality. This quick assessment will give you a rough idea of how you define a great life.

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