The theme for March was using iterative approaches in life, and we’ve talked about a lot. We’ve covered taking things to the extreme, favoring planning over plans, getting started with a minimum viable you, and overcoming existing baggage to do something better.
I want to give you a quick way to think about things you want to accomplish in life. As someone who has been working in a project-based environment, I know there is power in breaking objectives down and executing them as a project. I call it project-thinking.
Constraints to Motivate
The definition of a project is a temporary endeavor or something of limited duration. It has a start and an end, and an objective that usually fits in to a larger strategy. You will find that as you define this objective and add some constraints like time, budget, and scope, you’ll get motivated and ignite your creative mind.
For example, maybe you’re looking to learn a new skill or start a new hobby, like photography. Kick off a project and define an objective, such as: create a print of one of your photos that can hang in your guest bathroom. Maybe you’ll do more after that, but now you’ve got a tangible outcome. Set a reasonable timeline that you want this done by and how much you’re willing to invest in the project.
Monitor Progress
Now, set a couple milestones. A milestone is simply a point along the journey where you can measure progress. They might represent natural phases or shifts in the project, points where you expect significant progress, or even just dates where you expect to be continuing a certain activity.
As an example, for your photo project, you can set two milestones. The first is to complete an online photography course. The second might be to complete two photo shoots.
Dive In
We’ve talked a lot here about ways to get started and keep going; you’ve got all the tools you need. However, if you’ve defined the project and you’re still hesitant to start, reflect a bit on why? Do you need more courage? Or, does the project definition need to be tweaked? Whether it is some personal aspect you need to address, or an aspect of the project you need to modify, do it so that you can get started and achieve your dreams.
That’s the start of project thinking. Stay tuned for more as we go throughout the year.
What’s Coming
As I’ve mentioned, I have themes for each month, so this concludes our month on iterative approaches. In April, I plan to talk about partnerships, which is a pretty broad word. There are partnerships with friends, life partners, partnerships at work, organizational partnerships, and others. I’ll look at topics related to all of that. I also plan on exploring mentoring, which is a hot topic, but one that is ripe with unrealistic expectations.
As always, I appreciate you reading and coming along on this journey.