Most of us spend our time being busy. We expect a lot, compare our belongings with those of others and feel miserable about the miss-outs. We complain about the way life treats us. While thinking about my New Year’s resolution for 2007, I looked for an opportunity for self-improvement.

I believe that Juran, Deming and Drucker must have maintained their quality of life by practicing the principles they preached. Thought of as a process, quality of life must address input, in-process and output. In this case, the input will be all the outside stimulation we receive through our senses, in-process implies our activities and experience, and the outcome is what we give or leave to others. It’s an interesting way of looking at life.

As an electrical engineer and a quality professional, I think about finding an engineering approach to the quality of life.

My search for a process of living started in the mid 1990s. Luckily, many others had tried to do something similar and described their attempts in books such as Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill (Nightingale-Conant, 1937), Unlimited Power by Anthony Robbins (Simon & Schuster, 1986), Empires of the Mind by Denis Waitley (William Morrow, 1995), What It Takes to Succeed, Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey (Simon & Schuster, 1990), The Leadership Challenge by James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner (Jossey-Bass, 2002), and the list goes on.

While reading those books and others, I formulated my lessons and tried to create a process by arranging them in a series, creating the illusion of a process. It’s a challenge to capture continual thinking about life in this column while living a real life, and I believe the output is worth sharing. There is no one lesson for anyone—everyone lives a unique life—and still we see many commonalities among us. The process of living a life from birth to death is similar to a business, although the intermediate outcomes are quite different.

Last December, I completed a checklist for living a life while adding value to society. The society represents a sea of suppliers and customers. Everyone we meet can be a supplier or customer, based on the type of interaction. For life to have a net positive outcome, we must manage relationships at both ends of the process.

I long ago defined the purpose of my life through my interaction with society, and my work experience has taught me the significance of creating value.

There are many aspects to defining and striving to realize my purpose, and I call them the 14 Fundas (Fundamentals). There happen to be 14 fundamentals at this time, and more may be added as time goes on. I decided to use these fundas to drive my self-improvement. By the way, I had many opportunities for improvement, which I prioritized. I then picked one to work on.

By no means do I want this column to generate contentious debate about various faiths, as I’m not even qualified to participate in it myself. This is all based on my experience of more than 40 years. Points 13 and 14 can be viewed as written without thinking too much about the source. Look at my 14 Fundas of life below and decide what priority you give to each. Then see the response guidelines that follow:

Fourteen Fundas of Life (A Self-Assessment Checklist)
Fundamental Principle	Score (%)
1. I live with equanimity, I do not get angry or become sad.
2. I work to stay healthy. I love myself.
3. I contribute ‘BIG’ in my life
4. I maximize the use of my innate skills.
5. I wish well for everyone, myself included.
6. I’m grateful for each day as it is. I do not expect more or get frustrated.
7. I work continuously, like a flowing river, and I love it.
8. I produce more than I consume. I try to leave a lot for others.
9. I try to give happiness and seek peace. It makes me happy.
10. Life can be a moment long. I live each as my last.
11. I try to meet as many people as I can. I see everyone as an aspect of intelligence. I listen to people and try to learn from them.
12. I don’t really own anything. I do not fight for objects or money.
13. I have zero worries, because I trust myself and “God.”
14. I honor people. People are expressions of God.
Average

Analysis guidelines
Average score

• 90–100: Great! Keep doing what you do.
• 70–90: There’s room for continual self-improvement.
• 50–70: Work on your weakness.
• Under 50: You need to reflect and make significant changes in your life, perhaps consulting others for help.

Action guidelines
If the score of:

• One Funda is less than 50: You may ignore it.
• Two Fundas are less than 50: Be challenged and improve.
• Three Fundas are less than 50: Change fast.
• Four Fundas are less than 50: Pray, or find good friends.
• Five or more Fundas are less than 50: Seek help.

Note: I will be very interested in knowing readers’ experiences, suggestions or nice comments. Actually, I will read the nasty ones, too. Just click on the feedback link below.