Lifelong Project

Hope and the Project Manager

We’ve heard an awfully lot about hope over the past two years: hope for change, hope for a better life, hope for our country, our youth, and our tomorrow. There is a distinct line between hoping and wishing. Wishing is a longing for something fantastical and mystical where the outcome is magical and out of our control. Hope, on the other hand, is also a longing, but it’s feasible, personal, and the outcome is often very much in our control.

While I think it's important to have hope for our lives it's easy to lean on wishing and mistake it for hoping. I’ve been making some major adjustments in my life as a result of what I’ve been hoping for. I’m tired of only hoping so now I’m doing.

In project management you can’t hope the project will go well – and do nothing to make it happen. You can’t hope the software gets created, hope the project team does what they’re supposed to do, and hope the vendors deliver on time. Manage a project based on hope and you won’t be managing much of anything for long.

Project management is about getting things done. Sure, you can hope things go well in your project but until you take action and create a plan things probably won’t happen at all. And having a plan doesn’t do much for you unless you and the project team are willing to execute that plan.

It’s romantic and pleasant to talk about hope but hope can only take you so far. If you want to accomplish anything you need hope, you need something to look forward to, but sooner or later you’ve got to get busy getting things done. And when things are done, when things are moving towards becoming a reality, it is a wonderful feeling. In my life as things are evolving it’s surreal that the plans I’ve made are coming into fruition. Today seemed dreamlike and it was as if time stood still and passed all at once. Today the evidence of hope, the result of action, and the fulfillment of intent reached a major milestone in my project.

I believe that when these moments happen it is important to pause, to be aware, and consider the magnitude of what’s occurring. Life and projects are really made up of key, decisive moments. A friend sent me this little Proverb today and it captures exactly what I’m feeling just now: Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.

School of Life

 When school was ending I used to countdown the days: This is the last Monday of school. This is the last Tuesday of school. And then eventually it’d be the last day of school and summer was here, freedom was upon us. Now it was time for bare feet in the dew, climbing trees, fireflies, and summer camping. I did that routine for years and years until one school year, twenty years ago, I realized that this time it was the last Monday of school forever.

And then it was the last Tuesday.

And then it was over.

This past weekend marked twenty years since I finished high school, though I still feel like it’s only been a couple of years. I can clearly remember my friends, my beat-up car, Friday night football games and Tuesday night movies. I remember where my locker was, but have no idea of the combination. I can remember my favorite teachers, cutting class, and silly rituals we used to do.

Then it was odd jobs to pay for college. Chicago. A marriage, baby, divorce. There went a decade. And then back to Indiana. And then another decade. And now it’s my last Tuesday in Indiana.

So where have twenty years gone? I suppose like those days leading up to the last day of school these twenty years have slipped past an hour, a minute, a moment at a time. And that’s what life is comprised of, isn’t it? One day you’re moving a tassel right to left and the next you’re worrying about mortgages, college funds, and retirement accounts. The school of life isn’t taught in days, and weeks - just tiny slices of time, tiny moments. When I look back on my life I don’t recall 38 years - just some highlights and some headlines, some good times, some better times.

Today is my last Tuesday in Indiana.

Over the past few weeks I’ve been visiting with friends. We talked about our moments, all the good things we’ve done, and all the plans we still have for life. We talked about staying in touch, confirmed email addresses and phone numbers and then hugged goodbye. And each time I thought that this may be the last time I ever see this person. I hope not, but considering that we’ll be states and time zones apart it’s easy to understand how twenty years can disappear.

And so I’ve been pondering a new question: how can I get more moments in my life? What are the conditions that need to exist to create the moments I want to experience, that I want to remember twenty years from now? I asked how may I experience more in this school of life? How can I learn more, really live?

I’ve examined the moments I treasure the most from my life to explore what similarities and conditions exist in the moments of my life. Here are ten things I’ve learned:

• Television was not in any of my favorite memories
• Not all of the moments were joyful
• Friends and family were in many of the moments, but not all of them
• In none of my memories was I counting money
• Favorite moments often involved travel
• Sometimes I was lost in work that I enjoyed
• I was healthy in just about all my memories
• Trying new things is a common theme
• Music, art museums, and photography are prevalent
• I enjoy writing

That’s what I’ve learned about my life after 38 years. Now that I’m starting a new chapter in my life I’m taking this list with me - and I’ll continue to add to it. I’m not wasting anymore time doing things I don’t enjoy. I am done scheduling my life for mystical some days. When you think about it, life is one big school and any day could be the last Tuesday.