Our lives are intertwined with our projects. It’s difficult to define the word “project,” because it can mean an obligation, a choice, an objective in your career, a creative impulse, the decision to start a family, and many other things. Allow me to simplify and complicate the issue by defining a project as an undertaking on a forward path.
Flow counts for a lot. You don’t want the project to stall. A clear path is preferable to a blocked one, and the ability to overcome obstacles on the forward path is vital. Project management is a big deal, whether the project is to build a skyscraper, help a child apply for college, or write a blog post.
It’s important to be practical-minded when managing a project. Laying out plans, making lists, keeping track of the steps you’re taking: good and neccessary. But “practice” for the practical-minded is only as good as “the frame of mind” of the practical-minded (or, as Descartes never said, “l'état d'esprit de l'esprit pratique”).
Here it is: the famous frame-of-mind list that Decartes didn’t publish in 1652, two years after his untimely death. Abridged and updated.
Everything depends on “allowed, not allowed.” Do I allow myself to invest time and effort in a project? Is the project useful, to me and to others? Is it a priority, or is it a waste of energy and money? Who am I to write a book? If you don’t allow yourself to start the project, you never will. It seems obvious, but when you’re in the middle of doubt and confusion you might not see how “allowed, not allowed” is clogging up the path forward.
How will it turn out? It’s often difficult, if not impossible, to know how things will unfold and how the project will conclude. It’s relatively easy to make a baby, but—no, you don’t know how it’s going to turn out. Accept the unpredictable, the uncertain, the unclear, the un-manythings (to coin an expression), or you’re cooked and the project might sink. Believe it or not, Descartes actually said “I doubt, therefore I think, therefore I am.”
A paradox is “two opposites, both true.” Life-as-project is full of paradoxes: I want to, I don’t want to; I own the project, the project owns me; I’m okay with it, I’m not okay with it; the project is going forward, the project is stalled; I’m a genius, I’m an idiot. Both are true. Project management is paradox management.
Commitment and distance, at the same time (ay, paradox!). Too close to the project, and you can’t see it as a whole; the details overwhelm you, your emotions cloud your judgment. Too removed from the project, and the thing seems meaningless. Here comes a throwaway remark that I’ll not explain: “Perspective is humor, humor is perspective.”
It takes courage to finish a project, and it takes courage to abandon a project. Since projects are investments in your future, abandoning one can feel like a threat to the continuity of life (“project management as telenovela”). In college, I had an insight about Mozart, and I thought I’d compose a series of beautiful and challenging études for solo cello. It’s been 45 years since I self-planted that self-seed on my self-brain, and I have yet to abandon the project even though I’ve spent no more than 22 and a half minutes on it, or roughly thirty seconds per year.
Your definition of success and failure determines success or failure. Also, temporary failure is often a stepping stone to success. Also, you may feel that you’ve failed when you’ve actually succeeded, and you may feel that you’ve succeeded when you‘ve actually failed. Also, other people have diverging opinions about your failures and successes. Also, it’s generally better to put a little space between yourself and failure. Also, it’s generally better to put a little space between yourself and success.
How long does a project take? Technically, making a baby only takes a few seconds. Don’t let that fool you.
©2024, Pedro de Alcantara