The tangle of projects
Only if you have the space. (Library Company of Philadelphia)
Back in the quiet, peaceful days before there was Internet on planes, I used to use flying time for high-level planning.
I loved the opportunity to work on my metaphorical 20,000-foot view while literally at 20,000 feet.
I always faced the same problem with this planning: The closer I got to figuring out something that I wanted to do, the more new ideas I would generate.
Projects would break off and grow new roots, like the mother of thousands plant in my living room that has more than lived up to its name. But I would never seem to make significant progress. The midair inspiration would fade to confusion and I would be fighting my way through a tangle of projects that never got off the ground. (Yes, that was a pun, don’t tell anyone.)
In helping hundreds of people sort through their own tangles of projects, I have observed patterns. Understanding them helped me to get clarity on my own work and guide others.
First, I was able to boil down the reasons for pursuing a given project down to just two:
It makes money.
You feel like doing it.
A project doesn’t have to satisfy both of these requirements in order to be worth doing, but it has to satisfy at least one. And we have to be very clear on which one it is.
We may have other reasons for selecting projects (the expectations of other people, reputation, ego, a sense of obligation), but I’ve observed that a lot of us tend to get confused when they venture profit and personal preference.
Next, armed with the clarity about why we might pursue a given project, we can evaluate its prospects accordingly.
What you could do or should do becomes irrelevant. You can simply ask yourself what you want to do.
And when it is necessary — which it often is — you can figure out which projects will potentially make a profit.
Many bright ideas and possibilities fade in the face of these considerations. For example, I’ve often felt that I should create a proprietary curriculum for my music school, but it would be many months of work that would be unlikely to yield a profit when the development costs are taken into consideration. Until I have the time and interest in doing it “just for fun,” this idea is on hold.
Meanwhile, other initiatives stand out. I’d love to start a tennis association in my region in order to find more people who play and maybe organize some matches. Trying to figure out how it would make money would ruin it. Doing it just for fun sounds great.
I accept that I can’t do everything all at once. It’s tougher to swallow the fact that I can’t do everything, period. I’m old enough to know that some “great ideas” will never come to fruition. However, if I’m making a living and having fun all the while, I find it easier to let go of the potential projects that aren’t right for today.
There are often interlocking possibilities that we run into: Should I operate under this brand name or that one? Does the website get set up under this domain name or the other? Clarity of purpose again saves the day. If we’re doing it for fun, it doesn’t matter and we can just get started. If we’re doing it for a profit, then we choose whichever option will lead us there. Usually, it still doesn’t matter that much once we gain a little momentum.
Choosing and managing our projects may never seem truly simple, and we may try to keep a lot more active on the burners than is feasible. But knowing why we’re doing what we’re doing can help us to answer key questions about each of our pursuits and allow us to figure out how to prioritize and organize. That puts us in the best possible position to see our projects through to completion, freeing us up for the next one.
If you’d like support in executing a project this summer — or deciding which one to get started on — please reach out. I’m gathering a small group for this purpose.
(Hat tip to Dori for inspiring the title of this article in an offhand comment a year or so back).
