Since we are little kids we are asked what we wanna do when we are older. From this moment, we start building up our own life project. It may be a totally unconscious matter, because at that young age we aren’t thinking of planning our future, but focusing on dreams. But still, it’s these types of questions the ones that shape us up and finally, at the moment where we have to take one of the most important decisions of our life -our career choice-, will make us take one way or the other and there’s no going back.
(Unless we decide to quit halfway, or change our career choice, or study something else in the future.)
And even then! All these decisions are shaped up (and would be way easier to make) if we had a defined project. A scheme of goals we want to achieve, dreams we would like to make true, things we would prefer to avoid. A lot of people have an idea of it on their minds, but they don’t actually make the effort to develop and think things thoroughly. Developing our life project since a young age helps us bring the building blocks together in the grand scheme of things, making us take full advantage of opportunities that will help achieve our goals, and to abstain from falling into bad habits or conducts that will be detrimental to our future.
A life project gives purpose to our life. It allows us to dream, to have goals, to yearn, to wish… all of them motives to keep on living and surpass any obstacle that comes our way. Unlike a life plan, which may contain ideas that may lean towards ideals and not facts, a life project is realistic, hierarchichal and organized.
A life project has to contain:
- The goal we have
- Different ways to achieve it
- How much time it will take us
- The instruments, habilities, knowledge, and resources that will be needed
- The possible difficulties that we anticipate we may come across
This is applied to every aspect of our existence, because a human being develops in different spheres that complement each other. Spiritual, physical, educational, financial… every single aspect you can think of must play a part in achieving your goal. And your life project is everchanging, never stopping. It’s not written on stone, you may change your opinion regarding certain matters or decide that what you had initially planned is not the best result that you may come across. And that’s okay. That’s totally fine, actually. Because we are constantly learning.
We are allowed to make mistakes. We are allowed to think about what’s best for us, and not anyone else.
It’s our life, after all.