Do you drift through life aimlessly, allowing the days to pass by without a plan of action or a spirit of intentionality?
If so, you’ll feel weighed down by the burden of doing only what you are forced to do by circumstances or other people. Doing your duty in this way is, of course, required of all upright humans, but it’s not what brings out the most interesting or inspiring elements of our character.
For that, you need nothing less than a project of your own. Better yet, many projects of your devising. The key is that the idea for the work should spring out of your imagination and desire with the responsibility and execution falling squarely on your shoulders alone.
Choosing a Path: Easy Versus Challenging
Life lived this way is both easier and harder. Sure, it’s sometimes easier to coast with the prevailing winds—to fill your life with entertainment and easy pleasures as rewards. But in doing projects, you’re taking on the weight of ambitions for something better, which opens the possibility of failure or struggle—not always easier.
In my experience, it’s best if these projects are a mix of good for you and good for the world. What do I mean? All people are motivated best by what is interesting, inspiring, or enjoyable to themselves. We may wish that we could be equally inspired by that which has no interest to us, but that is not how we are wired.
Instead, we must find the overlap between what the world needs and what makes you come alive. It’s fine to take a portfolio project in which certain projects lean toward one end of the spectrum. Life is to be both enjoyed and used well, and I see no inherent failing in seeking to do both.
I hope sharing a few of my projects will excite your interest in taking up your own. Remember, what sounds appealing to me may not to you. Find your own sweet spot and fill your day, to the extent that sound judgment and wisdom allows, with projects of your very own.
My List—Summer 2024
Financial project: Purchase an investment property with my friends. Besides being a fun challenge, it can help to provide for my family in the future.
Cultural project: Listen to one new musical artist and watch one new movie every week. I want to enjoy as much human creativity as possible and this helps me to do so intentionally and systematically.
Family Project: Enjoy my family with every fiber of my being. What’s the point of any other goal unless I can enjoy my days on this earth with the people I spend the most time with?
Creative Project: Continue to write for and grow my blog, This Evergreen Home. I believe doing so keeps me sharp and thinking about bigger ideas and how I want to live my own life.
Faith Project: Summarize, in one sentence each, all 260 chapters of the New Testament. Faith is a big part of my life, and while I’ve consistently read the Bible, this new endeavor will force me to think in a new way and hopefully see new things.
Health Project: To prioritize daily exercise and eight hours of sleep per night. Any time I drift from this ideal, I realize how simple and powerful these two practices are in my life. When I’m doing them, almost everything else seems better.
One of the funny parts about having your own projects is simply how motivating it is to strive toward something, which in any other scenario would be considered work. But, because you are the one that came up with the idea, it feels like a fun quest.
I’m certainly not the first to make this observation or to note the powerful benefits of personal projects. Autonomy, the freedom to direct your actions, has long been noted as an important element of human thriving. In the health care setting, for example, recent studies in the Journal of Patient Experiences and The BMJ found that giving patients autonomy leads to better health outcomes, and giving health care workers more autonomy leads to more resilient organizations.
Don’t wait for permission from others to take up a project. Decide what you want to do and go do it. That’s the beauty of autonomy, to the extent that we are financially and physically able, we all have the power to just think up something and do it. Use that power to make your life better and to improve the lives of those around you.