I am a believer in the power of project management.
As a professional project manager for nearly twenty years, I have witnessed project success drive business results. I have also proven that project management can change lives and help achieve personal transformation. Now I am sharing some practical tips and techniques that you can use to help achieve your own personal goals, live your best life and become a PM Believer.
Science vs. Art
As I mentioned in my Executive Status Briefing (see You Are Here), project management is both a science and an art. Beyond the formal tools and processes, there are other habits and techniques that project managers use to achieve success. Today’s post explores one of these aspects of the art of project management.
Brand Name or Generic
Are you getting bored with your project?
There’s no denying it, long projects can get tedious for sure. When you are working on something for a year or more, it is easy to start losing interest. This could be the death of an important goal.
Don’t let your big goals die prematurely just because you get bored.
To keep long projects interesting, project managers need to find ways to infuse fun into the project.
One technique that works well to bring fun and engagement to a project is to brand it.
Many of us are familiar with the concept of branding. The original brand was a mark stamped onto the hide of livestock to mark it as your property. But it is so much bigger than that today.
Project “brand” creates an identity for your project. It starts with a memorable name and might include a logo and maybe even a tagline.
A brand is the first step to making your project less boring.
This strategy works well in a business setting when you have a team of people you are trying to motivate. But, can this same strategy work for your personal goal project? Yes!
Just because you don’t have a team of people following you and you are pursuing a goal that is important to you doesn’t mean you are impervious to getting bored. Any step you can take to keep it interesting and to enjoy the journey is another log to keep your fire burning.
Give your project a name to keep it interesting and remind you of why you are doing it. It should be a name that conveys to other people what your goal is.
When I started my weight loss project I could have just said “it is my weight loss project.” But people started telling me “you are just melting away” and it gave me an idea. That’s when “Operation Melt” was born. It gave my project a name. The name reminded me of what my goal was. The name also intrigued other people when I mentioned it which gave me another chance to tell my story.
What are you going to name your project so that it stays interesting and helps you crush your goal? Remember that the opposite of brand name is just generic.
Are you ready to be a PM Believer?
Generic projects get boring fast. Help combat this by choosing a brand-name project and make it less boring. If you can keep it interesting, you increase your chances of not giving up.
How have you applied project management for your personal success? Tell me about it at OperationMelt.com and make sure to join my email list to have updates delivered to your inbox weekly.
Make sure to help your friends achieve their goals by sharing this post on your social network and by following me on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram.
Want to know more about how I changed my life with project management? Pick up your copy of my book Operation Melt: How I Used Life-Changing Project Management to Lose Over 100 Pounds In Under a Year.
About Operation Melt
Operation Melt started as a blog to share my personal transformation and weight loss story. After achieving success with that goal, Operation Melt has evolved into a platform to help inspire, motivate and equip people to achieve their own personal and professional goals so they can live their best lives. My vision is to build a world where no goal ever dies of loneliness.
