How will YOU measure your life?

Have you ever wondered if your life matters? For example, (now some of you might find this morbid, but here goes…) have you ever wondered who or HOW MANY would show up to your funeral? I have. Have you ever been to a funeral and there were hundreds of people in attendance or worse, only a few? I have. Those moments got me to thinking about my life and whether or not it would matter to anyone if I died suddenly. I KNOW it would matter to my daughter, to my parents and most of my family, but outside of them, would anyone show up?

There’s a popular LDS hymn entitled, “Have I Done Any Good?” and it asks,

“Have I done any good in the world today,

Have I helped anyone in need?

Have I cheered up the sad and made someone feel glad?

If not, I have failed indeed.

Has anyone’s burden been lighter today

Because I was willing to share?

Have the sick and the weary been helped on their way?

When they needed my help was I there?

Then wake up and do something more,

Than dream of your mansion above.

Doing good is a pleasure,

A joy beyond measure,

A blessing and duty and love.”

(“Have I Done Any Good,” LDS Hymns, Will L. Thompson, 1847-1909, alt. P. 223)

This is kind of my theme song and I feel like it is something I was reminded of in my studies this week. I don’t know if the lesson material really stressed these points or not, but this is what the Holy Ghost taught me.

Life is short and the older you get, the shorter it becomes. This is an unchangeable fact. What you do with the time you have left, in my opinion, determines who you are. Have YOU done any good in the world? Have YOU made someone feel glad? Have you set your priorities on the things of this life or the next?

This seems a bit like what Clayton M. Christensen was referring to in his article in his Harvard Business Review article entitled How Will You Measure Your Life. Will your life be measured by the number of meetings you attended, golf rounds you played, or school recitals and plays you missed? Or will it be measured by the number of lives you helped change for the better?

All of these questions gave me heart palpitations! While I’m not yet a tycoon in business, I wonder if I have ever chosen to put something ahead of my family or serving others that really could have waited until later. I hope not.

I also learned something else this week…even if I have put other things first on occasion, there is this wonderful gift called repentance wherein we ask forgiveness from those we have mistreated or put on the back-burner. That works in life, but it also works in business. I find an apology goes a long way. But sometimes that is not enough. An apology is just words if the poor action is not changed. Unfortunately an apology won’t ALWAYS make things better, but it never hurts.

I guess what I’m trying to say is in business, as in life; we need to make choices about what is important to us. I think the key is to decide early in our careers what matters most to us and then always strive to place that in a position of importance. My father, a very prominent attorney in our city, set the standard relating to this. My brother and I were taught that NO MATTER WHAT, if we needed to speak to him, as long as he was near a phone, all we had to do was call. He didn’t care if he was in an important meeting or deposition. If we needed him, he answered the call. Period. I have made the same decision and with each position I have held, I made it clear before hiring on that my family would always come first. So far, it has not been an issue.

I am hopeful that I can learn a great deal more about how to be successful in business. I want to find ways to serve my business, family, friends and customers. For me, these are the instructions I am hoping to receive in my business classes. So far, so good! 

I ask you the same question I asked myself, "How will YOU measure your life?"