You Get What You Measure in Life (Are You Measuring the Right Things?)

Was forwarded this email? Don’t worry, subscribe HERE

HEARTSET

During the late 1800s, when the British ruled over India, a dangerous problem was growing.

A deadly infestation of cobras.

It had gotten so bad in the streets of Delhi that the government had no choice but to do something drastic. The leaders came up with what appeared to be a brilliant solution - pay citizens a bounty for every dead cobra.

This program actually worked. The streets became clear of cobras and it was a safer place for every man, woman and child - at least initially. Soon after, the number of cobras reported began to grow!

After investigating, they discovered an unexpected consequence of the program. Entrepreneurial folks began breeding cobras so they could be killed and be rewarded with cash.

Needless to say, the government shut the program down, only to have wasted money and be left with a much bigger problem - more cobras.

You’ve probably heard this quote (some say this was from Peter Drucker) before:

“What gets measured gets managed”

It’s typically used in business urging people to put metrics in place if you want to see improvement. But what’s often left out is the latter part of the quote, which is actually more important:

“What gets measured gets managed - even when it’s pointless to measure and manage it, and even if it harms the purpose of the organization to do so.”

The cobra story exemplifies this so well. When the metric was “dead cobras”, the number of dead cobras did increase, but because of the sole pursuit and reward of this metric, the system began to optimize itself for more dead cobras, no matter how it happens.

What if we applied this concept to our lives?

How are you measuring your life?

Am you blindly optimizing for pointless metrics?

MINDSET

What will your life be like if you measured the success of your life purely by how much money you make?

Conversely, what will your life be like if you measured the success of your life by the number of deep belly laughs?

Your life becomes what you measure.

SKILLSET

Here are five ideas to help you better measure your life:

1/ Create a life strategy

Have a strategy. Define for yourself what is important to you. By reflecting on what success means for you, you can create a strategy (decisions) for how you want to live your life.

(My purpose is to deeply impact as many lives as I can, starting with my own family. This means doing what I love, bringing joy and energy to my people.)

2/ Allocate time

If your life strategy is about relationships but you don’t spend time on any of them, you aren’t executing on that strategy. Plan and track how much time you spend on the things that matter to you.

(To deeply impact as many lives a I can, I spend at least 2 full days a week to read, to write, to coach, and work on different ways to deliver what I’m learning because different people learn differently.)

3/ Measure for discovery

I strongly believe that much of our lives we are trying to untangle what we care about and what our society and our parents want us to care about. So when we approach our measurement with curiosity and using it as a data point to help us better understand ourselves, we can truly be the best version of ourselves and not someone else.

(The idea of playing an instrument has always intrigued me. I’ve tried countless times to learn and practice guitar, the ukulele but it has never caught on. Maybe it’s something that deep down I don’t really care about!)

4/ Diversify what you measure

By putting together a more holistic measure of what you are trying to achieve, you can better avoid the “cobra effect”.

For example, if you are looking to strengthen your relationships with your kids:

• What’s the frequency your kids ask you to play?

• What percent of the time are they coming to you when they are scared, hurt or worried?

• How often do they say yes to an activity with you rather than being by themselves in their room?

Other things to measure:

• Love

  • Send a digital love note to your partner each day

  • Schedule one surprise appreciation each week where you send an email or leave a voice message to a friend

• Morals

  • Write down three values you hold dear each morning

  • Write a journal entry at the end of the day about the decisions you made and whether they aligned with your values

(I’m going to track laughter by having a laugh journal at the end of the day - what were the happiest moments?)

5/ Just don’t measure

There are some things you do because you love doing it. Some people just love to run because they just do. Measuring every run and how long might just take the fun out of it. Nothing wrong with that!

Remember that measuring and tracking won’t guarantee a good life and it’s not the solution for everything.

But if you are intentional about it, I guarantee you will find better alignment between who you are, who you wish to become, and where you spend your time.

See you all next week!

Live your legend 🤘🏽,

Howie Chan

Creator of Legend Letters

​Read my story​

​Follow me on LinkedIn

Sources:

1. Linkner, Josh, The Cobra Effect - LINK

2. Guarini, Kathryn, You Get What You Measure (So Be Careful What You Measure), Mother of Invention, June 6, 2021 - LINK

3. Christensen, Clayton, How Will You Measure Your Life?, Harvard Business Review, July 2010 - LINK

4. Clear, James, What Are You Measuring in Your Life? - LINK

5. Avellan, Lisa, Five Better Ways to Measure Your Life, Becoming Minimalist Blog - LINK

6. MacArthur, Alex, Evading Goodhart’s Law in My Personal Life, August 2, 2022 - LINK

Two Ways I can Help You:

1/ Power Hour

Book a 1:1 call with me and we can talk about your personal brand strategy and LinkedIn growth (I grew from 7K to 70K followers in 5.5 months).

Learn more

2/ Personal Brand Strategy Program

Three 1:1 coaching sessions to get clarity on your story and your brand so you can attract what and whom you want into your life.

​Learn more