What is a project anyway?

 

I used to get cringes when I heard the word Project in the past. It is so undefined, so vague, yet it sounds so grandiose. It is so generalized and abused that even its definition is vague:

A Project is: An individual or collaborative enterprise that is carefully planned to achieve a particular aim.

Then, what is an enterprise, one might ask, so its definition is a vague recursive callback to the first definition:

An Enterprise is: A project or undertaking, especially a bold or complex one.

But we all intuitively know what a project is, right? It's that thing um... project managers talk about, that thing you work on... um... that thing someone plans and executes, most of the time. That thing we are late for 6 months already!

See where I'm going with this?

Regardless, lets switch gears a little bit, how do you feel when you have too much time on your hands? I mean when you have absolutely nothing to do, for whatever reason. You feel bored and useless, right? So you start thinking what can I improve in my immediate surroundings first. Make my bed, prepare me some breakfast, have a coffee with a friend. The possibilities are endless. Once you are done with those, you start planning your next day, or the weekend, vacation maybe?

Well, now we are starting to think about steps to implement that vacation like: place, time, budget, resources, people involved, equipment, and special conditions. Yes, that is a project. What distinguishes it from making a bed is the logical units of work in our head (rhyme intended). It's the size of the checklist that makes it a project, the greater the goal, the bigger the project. That is what the above definitions are running in circles for.

Everybody needs a project, sometimes short-term, often times long-term, but we all need goals to fulfill. I constantly need a project on my mind, so I can focus my extra energy and attention onto something. Whether that is maintenance of equipment or producing something, or implementing a solution for a problem. I need something to look forward to, and to contribute toward everyday. It doesn't have to be a material thing, sometimes is perfecting a skill, raising a child, maintain a relationship... I just need a thing, that I will obsess over for some time. Yes, that is a project too.

Project-less life is purposeless life, therefore should be avoided. Difficult or complex goals give us the feeling of accomplishment even if we don't meet them. When that inevitably happens, we learn and obtain a story of how not to approach the task at hand, so we become wiser.  

Life is a checklist of projects we are designated to complete