Harvard Business Review turned their expertise on "Strategy" toward _living a happy life_. The result was a very strange article (see [source](https://hbr.org/2023/12/use-strategic-thinking-to-create-the-life-you-want)). There's a 7-step process for Businesses to take, and those can be adopted to the realm of life: | Business | Life | | :-- | :-- | | How does the organization define success? | How do I define a great life? | | What is our purpose? | What is my life purpose? | | What is our vision? | What is my life vision? | | How do we assess our business portfolio? | How do I access my life portfolio? | | What can we learn from benchmarks? | What can I learn from benchmarks? | | What portfolio choices can I make? | What portfolio choices can I make? | | How can we ensure a successful, sustained change? | How can I ensure a successful, sustained life change? | # Step 1 - How Do I Define a Great Life? Use something like [[PERMA-V]] and a scale to determine how satisfied you are with your life. Life [[Defining Area|area]]s also feel like a good way to break this down. Each element in can be rated on a modified [[2x2 Growth-Share Matrix]] to determine their importance & satisfaction. # Step 2 - What's My Life Purpose? They suggest asking yourself: 1. What am I good at? 2. What are my core values? 3. What activities "light me up"? 4. What need can I help address in the world? This deals with the [[Drifting Center of the Venn|Venn Diagram]] of "good at", "like to do", and "what I enjoy". They phrase _enjoyment_ in terms of [[5 Why to Your Values|values]]. # Step 3 - What's My Life Vision? Ask yourself - "What story would I like people to tell about me in 5 to 10 years?" "What would I do if money weren't an issue?" "What will 80-year old me not want to have missed in life?" A vision describes the direction you're taking in your life. It's how you know if what you're doing is taking you where you want to go - you have to decide where you want to go. # Step 4 - How Do I Assess My Life? HBR suggests using a [[2x2 Growth-Share Matrix]] to plot out their suggested list of [[HBR's Key Life Areas]] in terms of importance and satisfaction. They suggest figuring out how you spend your [[Life Energy]] and your [[168 Hours]] across your [[Defining Area|area]]s. Do a [[Commitment Inventory]], basically. Here **the size of the circles are proportional to the amount of time you spend on it** in a given week: ![[IMG_1142.jpeg]] # Step 5 - What Can I Learn from Benchmarks? A best practice is to look at others and cheat off their test, basically. Who do I look up to? What do they do differently than me? What would _they_ do in this particular situation I'm in? What decision would they make? There was a life satisfaction survey done in Germany that HBR cites. This study may be worth looking at. There is an optimum amount of time to spend on leisure and sleep. There's a monotonically increasing return on life satisfaction for societal engagement, effort on nutrition, sports & church ([[Human Synchrony]]), and number of close friends. HBR also referees to other studies that show the importance of [[Be Kind to You|kindness]], [[Mindfulness & Now|Mindfulness]], and [[Specific Gratitude|gratefulness]], cultivating more humor/laughter, dedicating time to learning, and working to grow yourself. # Step 6 - What Portfolio Choices Can I Make? This is basically where you take the "thinking about your life" portion of the work done above and think about [[What's Working, What Needs Attention, and What You're Doing About It Diagram|What's Working and What Needs Attention]]. Note that you can do [[Anything, but Not Everything]]. You'll have to decide what's essential. Note that it doesn't have to be huge, but instead a [[Small but Consistent beats Big but Sporadic|small change, consistently applied]] will result in [[Habits Have Compounding Returns|compounding returns]]. Pick things you want to change. Write them down. # Step 7 - How Can I Ensure a Successful, Sustained Life Change? Once you've picked out things to check, use techniques like [[OKRs]] and [[SMART Goals]] to [[Project Decomposition|break down your progress]]. You can use rewards and consequences (like the 3rd step of the [[Habit Loop]]) to help [[Aligned Incentives Quote|align your incentives]] for pleasure with your achievement of your long-term life vision. # Bonus: Create a One-Pager A [[Strategy Document]] fits on one page. This can be done for your _life strategy_ true. This would _probably_ lol pretty similar to your [[What's Working, What Needs Attention, and What You're Doing About It Diagram]], combined with a [[Mission Statement]]. They also have a template in the linked source. It's fine. The worksheet itself isn't the value. It's doing the worksheet. I like my diagram thing better. **** ## Source - [HBR Article]([](https://hbr.org/2023/12/use-strategic-thinking-to-create-the-life-you-want)) ## Related - [[What is a Strategy]]765