A friend sent me a wonderful article entitled <strong>How Will You Measure Your Life:  Don't reserve your best thinking for your career </strong>by Clayton M. Christensen, a Harvard Business School professor.   It was published in the July/August 2010 issue of <em>Harvard Business Review</em>.  The article discusses how he teaches his students to apply these principles to their professional and personal lives:
<ol>
	<li><strong>Create a strategy for your life</strong>.  Know your values and spend your time, talents, and energy on what is most important to you.</li>
	<li><strong>Allocate your resources</strong>.  Avoid underinvesting in your family and overinvesting in your career.</li>
	<li><strong>Create a culture</strong>.  Build a family culture of strong self esteem and confidence by solving problems and learning what works.</li>
	<li><strong>Avoid the "marginal" costs mistakes</strong>. Eliminate the "just this once, it's ok" thinking.</li>
	<li><strong>Remember the importance of humility</strong>. Know and feel good about who you are and regard others with the same.</li>
	<li><strong>Choose the right yardstick</strong>.  Measure your success by the number of lives you have touched.</li>
</ol>
These six principles really resonated with me because it reminded me of my vision of an ideal leader and why I created CSO Leadership Training.  Indeed, through CSO Leadership Training, I am at my best--my personal version of an ideal leader. Through leadership development, I strive to reframe women's self negating habits, such as the voice that says, "I am not good enough" or the one that keeps us playing small and avoiding risk-taking.

The core piece to combat the inner critic is the CSO leadership mission statement, which states how your values and talents are aligned to your ideal career goal and legacy.  It enables you to live each one of the principles outlined in this article.  It serves as a compass to determine which path is the best to take as opportunities arise.  It provides a foundation of clarity, purpose and strength when the world gets hairy, confusing, and hazy.