Answer these questions. Listen to Sarah, a woman from the USA, answer these questions. Report back what you have heard.

• ⌚ 0:09 What is the Strategize your Life course about?
• ⌚ 0:17 How many steps does the program have?
• ⌚ 0:26 How experienced is the speaker in the area of strategy?
• ⌚ 0:37 How did his background in science help him?
• ⌚0:44 What example illustrates this principle of applying an idea from one field to a different field?
• ⌚ 0:50 What question did he ask himself?

• ⌚ 1:02 What is a corporate strategy?
• ⌚ 1:27 What is the definition of a life strategy?
• ⌚ 2:35 What are the seven steps in business strategy?
• ⌚ 2:35 How do they translate into life strategy questions?
• ⌚ 2:47 How do many people define a great life?
• ⌚ 3:00 Why doesn’t earning more money increase our happiness?
• ⌚ 3:19 What did Prof. Martin Seligman created?
• ⌚ 4:09 What do the letters in PERMAV stand for?

• ⌚ 4:48 What are strategic life units? What can we invest in them?
• ⌚ 5:00 Who is your first strategic life unit (SLU)?
• ⌚ 5:29 What are the other 16 Strategic Life Units?
• ⌚ 5:59 What are the three pieces of information we need to collect about SLU?
• ⌚ 6:19 What is a Strategic Life Portfolio?
• ⌚ 6:32 What does the 2×2 matrix show?
• ⌚ 7:14 What did 95% of participants of their training have?
• ⌚ 7:26 What do many people put in the lower right square?

• ⌚ 7:54 What can we change in our portfolio?
• ⌚ 8:11 What do we find in the upper left corner?
• ⌚ 8:30 What advice does Michael give if we have an issue with relationships and friends?
• ⌚ 8:47 What do people who had an issue with social media did in the training?
• ⌚ 9:12 What is the right Portfolio?
• ⌚ 9:19 How will it look on the matrix?

• ⌚ 9:33 Can we really come up with a strategy for our lives?
• ⌚ 9:41 What do we need to know, even in uncertain times?
• ⌚ 9:49 What did Seneca say about not knowing where we are sailing?
• ⌚ 9:53 What two things do we need to be open to?
• ⌚ 10:12 What does the second Seneca’s quote mean as regards life strategy?

Cast your vote in the poll. 

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.

(…)

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.

Alita: Hey Pete, remember that “Strategize Your Life” session we had last week? I’ve been thinking a lot about those PERMA-V factors we talked about.

Pete: Oh, yeah, the survey was pretty eye-opening. I never really thought about breaking down my well-being into those specific areas. Positive emotions, engagement, relationships, meaning, accomplishment, and vitality, right?

Alita: Exactly! I scored pretty high on positive emotions and relationships but realized I’m lacking in the accomplishment department. How about you?

Pete: For me, it’s a bit of a mix. I feel quite engaged in what I do, especially at work, and I’ve got a good sense of vitality, probably thanks to my morning jogs. But, I’m with you on the accomplishment part. It’s like I’m doing things, but not necessarily the things that feel impactful, you know?

Alita: Totally get that. It’s like, we’re busy but are we moving in the direction we really want? I’m thinking of setting some clear goals for myself, kind of like what we do here at work with our performance indicators.

Pete: That’s a good idea. I should probably reflect more on what ‘meaning’ really means to me. Maybe start some projects that align more with my personal values.

Alita: Yeah, and I think keeping up with the vitality aspect is important too. You’re doing great with your jogging. I should probably pick up something like that. Maybe yoga or something.

Pete: Definitely. It’s all about balance, isn’t it? Making sure we’re not just focusing on one area. I think the survey helped highlight that. So, are you going to make any big changes?

Alita: I’m planning to, starting with some small steps. Maybe take up a new hobby and set some achievable career goals for the year. How about you?

Pete: Same here. I’m going to spend some time figuring out what really gives my life meaning and try to incorporate more of that. Maybe volunteer work or mentoring.

Alita: Sounds great, Pete. It’s good we’re taking these steps, isn’t it?

Pete: Absolutely. It’s like we’re fine-tuning our lives. Let’s catch up again soon to see how we’re both doing with these changes.

• What is your opinion on the Strategize Your Life program? Can it really work?
• How deliberate are you about your own life goals and plans?
• Do you agree that life is a chain of lucky events?
• What do you think of the PERMA-V factors? Are they complete?
• Which of the PERMA-V factors would you like to improve and why?
• Which of the factors are you the most satisfied today?

Revise the vocabulary from this class using this glossary.

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