Who Is The Project Manager Of Your Life?
Written by: Aalaa Aljar, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
"Our life is a series of projects and the successful within us, who leaves a fingerprint that will help others to live their life better" ‒ Aalaa Aljar. Let's understand the quote: First Part: What does "Our life is a series of projects" mean? Definitions: Life is any system capable of performing functions. Series are things related happening one after the other. A project is a temporary endeavor to create a unique service/result ( source: PMI).
In an abstract from Neil Robinson's 2017 article "Life is a Project: Project Management as an Enabling Life Skill," he amazingly described the quote from Maylor’s 2010 "Life is one big project, and the trick is in managing it"; Neil's description is "The concept of Life being viewed as a series of related tasks which can be planned and managed as one big project, and In theory, the tools, techniques, and skills of project management can be applied with equal efficacy to any endeavor that meets the project criteria of temporariness, uniqueness, and purpose, including life projects."
Therefore, Our system (Life) that is capable of performing functions from when we were born until we leave this world fluctuates as the heart beats with up being successful in certain circumstances/ ages and down beats as it's time to change (series). So, dear readers, imagine how many projects you have initiated, executed, monitored, controlled, and documented with lessons learned for yourself and others throughout your life Journey.
Second Part: What does it mean ‒ "The successful within us, who leaves a fingerprint that will help others to live their life better."?
Each individual defines success differently, and the success definition surprisingly evolves as the individual evolves in life. However, the second part of the quote explains that we as individuals practice various methodologies, collaborate with multiple stakeholders, ensure communication, allocation of time and budget, and more through the journey with being responsible for the outcomes to make necessary adaptations, integrations, and transformations. There will always be an ongoing behavior within an individual as we learn, teach, mentor, coach, consult, guide, lead, and manage what's around to make a living and build a better future for ourselves and others. Therefore, Maylor's 2010 quote is valid about the trick of life in managing it.
With all the above realization, "Who is the Project Manager of your life"?
The Answer is: YOU
In the following article, we will dive deep into our role as project managers of our life.
As I close up this article, I understand that it's a challenging concept to look at your life as a project because the concept norm is most of the projects are in professional areas such as Engineers, Information Technology, Organizations, PMOs, etc. However, to experience the concept, let's practice an exercise by asking:
What is my view of "Our Life is a series of projects"?
How am I my life project manager in a day, a week, a month, a year, and five years? Example: Take one day from your week as a testimonial and identify the unique result/service per day with the methodology used to accomplish the outcome.
On a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being the highest). How does this quote resonate with you? "Our life is a series of projects and the successful within us, who leaves a fingerprint that will help others to live their life better" ‒ Aalaa Aljar?
Aalaa Aljar, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Aalaa Aljar is a certified Coach by International Coaching Federation (ICF), A certified professional in Project Management by Project Management Institute (PMI), a Master's Degree Holder, and a Lean Practitioner. Her invented Coaching philosophy is “Turtorse” to deliver a respectful value with an impact. The Approach is to provide an Impactful Transformation Results for corporates and individuals.
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