To Determine Value in Our Lives, Do We Need New Metrics?

Invest Smart Advisor
May 18
2 min read

Updated: May 29

Current work KPIs measure efficiency, productivity, and effectiveness, but in the information age new ways of measuring personal and business value may be needed. AI is set to catapult all 3 measures, but true excellence and and fulfillment seem to be borne in the 'grey area'. The grey area has for the longest time dominated the field of finance, a field governed by uncertainty and future unknowns. Measuring value in the grey area isn't about achieving the most or the least. In the grey area, as in finance, value centers around the mantra of 'getting it right. If your estimations of the future are too low or too high, you have failed in the essential work of finance. This is a field where 'it depends' applies to almost everything. Projections of returns depend on varying factors that are dynamic, correlated and sometimes conflicting. Allocations for investments depend on your risk profile, risks in the market, and a number of statistics about the asset classes you're seeking to invest in.

We have arrived at a time when the professional and the personal grey areas are aligning. In conversation with family, friends, and clients, discussions about a life well-lived are no longer about having the most - the most money, the most followers, etc.... It is about getting it right. It seems we have arrived at the realization that having the most of anything doesn't guarantee you'll get what you want out of life. What seems to matter is who gets it right. Imagine someone who from a young age knew what they wanted out of their personal and professional lives, we'll call him Jim. Jim wanted to be an architect, to design and build structures in the world that change how people live and experience physical spaces. At a critical decision point in his teenage years, he ignored the naysayers who said he didn't have the chops to be an architect. He knew he wanted a family and looked for a path into architecture that would allow him to achieve his personal and professional goals. He ignored the people who encouraged him to go into fields that would be more lucrative, wary of careers and roles that would cost him his personal and professional goals. He designed a life for himself so that he could get it right, not too much or too little.

Maybe these are the new ways we should be measuring value in our lives. Did we accomplish what we set out to do, or were we sidetracked by the influences and voices of others. Did we fulfill our purpose, did we get it right? Or did we get too much of some things and not enough of others?

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Article Inspiration:

## Discover the Book: Designing Your Life

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