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.
Get Your As-Is in Gear
If you don’t know where you are going, any road will lead you there.
This cautionary idiom means that you need to know where you are going if you are going to get there. Otherwise, you may follow the wrong path to your goal.
But what about the other side of the journey? What about the starting line.
An early deliverable of most projects is the as-is and to-be process mapping.
As-is process maps document (hopefully in a pictorial process flow document) how things work today in the area being impacted by your project.
To-be process maps document how the processes will work in the future after the project is implemented.
When these two process flows are compared, the differences between them are the scope of your project.
On a side-note, there are times when I say “we don’t know our as-is from a hole in the ground.” This happens when teams struggle to document their as-is processes because they don’t really know what their process is. They just do “stuff” and results happen. Feel free to use my dumb dad joke.
This process mapping approach can be very helpful when you are managing a personal goal project. I’m going to just focus on the as-is for today’s topic.
No matter what goal you are pursuing, it is important to know where you are starting from today.
Want to lose twenty pounds? Why you aren’t losing weight today?
Want to be a millionaire? Where your money is going today and why aren’t you saving?
If you don’t know why you haven’t already achieved your goal, it is very unlikely that you will be able to change your outcome.
Between defining your SMART goal and building your project plan, press pause for a minute. Take time to complete a personal audit first. Observe your current behaviors related to your goal and take lots of notes. Where are you spending money on discretionary things? Where are you picking up extra calories each day and how much exercise do you get? How are you behaving today and where might you be able to intervene.
By having a good grasp on the reality of your current situation, your as-is process, you will be better positioned to make the changes needed to achieve your to-be goal.
Are you ready to be a PM Believer?
You’ve kicked off your project and probably have a pretty good idea of where you are going. But, do you know where you are starting? If not, how will you know the right plan to hit your goal. Sounds like it is time for us to get our as-is in gear!
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.
