We explain what a life project is and what being able to achieve it will depend on. Also, steps and tips to achieve your goals.
What is a life project?
A life project is a long or medium-term personal plan that you plan to follow over the years. It is designed in order to meet certain objectives or specific goals and is based on personal tastes, values or abilities. Many people set their life project based on a university degree, a job, a partner or starting a family.
You usually start thinking about a life project when a certain maturity is reached especially after the age of 20: when the person can define what they like, what they dislike, what motivates or challenges them.
The search for a life project is a process that occurs throughout life and can vary depending on the objectives or needs of each person. It is essential that the project and the proposed objectives are based on what each individual truly is and what they want to transmit to the world.
The search for a personal project It involves effort and self-knowledge ; It means setting goals that lead to action and doing everything within your power to achieve them.
Possibly on the way to the project there are variables that the person cannot control: setbacks, lack of money or time. However, if the individual concentrates on what he can work on, he may be closer to completing his project.
The idea that each person has about their future depends partly on education: the values acquired at school and at home can be the initial drive or motivation necessary for self-improvement and the pursuit of projects.
The idea of the future also depends on personality and the possibility of trusting in the capabilities and potential of each person to believe themselves worthy and capable of meeting all the proposed objectives.
The life project involves achieve a goal for which certain steps must be followed to achieve it. For example: Juan wants to be a great engineer, graduating with a good average and then being able to work in an important company. What you will do is study to graduate on time, work hard to get good grades and then gain experience to be able to enter the desired company later.
Some essential values that will help in achieving personal objectives are respect for life, for others, for the environment, for oneself, solidarity, perseverance, honesty and trust.
See also: General objective
Objectives of a life project
- Define objectives and goals clear to make the right decisions.
- Reveal and leave established what the person wants for your life.
- Seek the development of self-knowledge and self-management.
- About tools to achieve personal goals.
- Allows you to discover tastes personal, values and abilities.
- Align the individual's decisions with his true being.
- Allows envision a future. How do I want to be? Where do I want to be? With who?
- Focus energy of the individual in what he wants to achieve.
Steps to achieve a life project
1. Self-knowledge
What things do I like? What things do I dislike? What are my skills? These are some of the questions that everyone can ask themselves when define who you are and where you want to go.
Self-knowledge is one of the most important steps to define a personal life project; since to the extent that it is aligned with what the individual is, the lighter the path will be and the greater the reward.
It is essential that the individual is convinced of the objectives and goals to be achieved and thus finds the energy within to achieve them. This may seem like a long and difficult path, but It will be rewarding and will help you complete the next steps.
2. Review projects
It is important that the person review the objectives that he once set for himself. to see if they respond to your interests and concerns today. Is this my project today or from when I was a child? Is it my project or is it my parents'?
As the years go by, you can notice that people with whom you have come a long way (at school, at university) begin to navigate their own projects and discover their life plan. Parents have a life plan, siblings have another life plan, high school friends, others.
Differences should not distress, but rather motivate to go out to find one's own. Have a life project that each person creates to measure allows you to achieve a more serene and happy life aligned with what each one is, regardless of whether or not all the proposed objectives can be met.
3. Set your own objectives and goals
In this step, it is necessary for the person to analyze their life today (seeing what they want to change, what they want to leave as it is) and their true needs. So, set objectives and think about goals that will lead to them. It is important visualize how you are going to achieve everything you want and never stop believing in the power of imagination: it is proven that visualizing situations and ideas helps you be more positive and persevering.
4. Take action
Action implies that the individual puts his or her all to achieve the objectives. This also means developing a tolerance for frustration when plans do not go as expected. Varying the small objectives or goals that make up the life project is part of this task. There is a series of values that are fundamental when facing the execution of objectives:
- Optimism. If this characteristic can be met, life will be easier. Optimism allows us to always see the good side of all the things that happen. Being an optimistic person is a matter of daily exercise.
- Self-confidence. Self-confidence can be affected by situations that have been experienced but, like optimism, it is necessary to exercise it. The person must begin to feel confident in who they are, accept themselves and from there they will begin to feel different and capable of achieving everything they set their mind to.
- Patience The life project is a process that will not be achieved overnight, since it is necessary to go through life to achieve each objective. To achieve each proposed thing it is a matter of being patient: this journey is not for anxious people.
When goals are achieved, new doors and new objectives will open. Continuing with Juan's example: when he gets the job in that desired company, his next objective will be to advance within it and obtain a management position. Perhaps, once I achieve that goal, I can change companies and aspire to another high position.
Examples of life project
- Professional life project.
- University life project.
- Life project with a couple.
- Life project at the family level.
- Life project in the academic field.
- Life project in the musical field.
- Life project in art.
- Work life project.
Continue with: Research project
References
- “The Life Project: what makes some people happy, healthy and successful – and others not?” in The Guardian.
- “Redoing our life projects” in El País.
- “Personal and social counseling” in Enfoque Humanístico Magazine.
