Project 22 - The Origin

Warning: Context setting ahead.  Future posts are planned to be shorter.

Project 22

In November 2011 I realized that I would turn 50 in 22 months (hence Project 22).  My age has never been something I really considered - the 3 "big" birthdays for me being 16, 18, and 21.  After that I really didn't notice much (including 30 and 40).  50 is a different deal.  It's not about how I feel physically.  I am very physically active, exercise regularly, and consider what I eat ("watch" would be too strong a word).  A couple of months ago I played in a pickup game of basketball with some much younger guys and acquitted myself very well - that felt good.  And it's not about feeling "old".  To some extent that implies to me a lack of  comprehension of current culture and engagement in life.  While I may prefer Trace Adkins to Beyonce, Star Wars Episode IV to I, II, and III,  and Star Trek:TOS to Star Trek:TNG, I do stay abreast of current events and technology.  I have an active life with friends, in my church, and at my job.  So what makes it different?  I began some introspection, considering many facets of my life - where I am at now and where I could be on my 50th birthday given some focused effort.  Whatever I chose to pursue I wanted to provide focus, but not necessarily constrain myself to a particular number of items.  That is, while I didn't want to have 100 to-dos on my list, I also did not want to arbitrarily set a limit.

I started out with a simple list.  This quickly became unwieldy as one thought led to another, with some related to multiple other ideas.  I needed a better tool to help me organize my thoughts and layout whatever plans I came up with.  A couple of months ago I started using a tool at work called "FreeMind".  It is an implementation of a technique called "mind mapping".  (I've since moved onto "Freeplane", a more active open source project).  On my iPod Touch I found an app for mind mapping called "SimpleMind", allowing me to work on my project wherever I was - perfect.  Mind mapping provided the exact structure (or lack of it) that I needed.  More about this in a future post.

As I started considering what I am doing now and what I would like to be doing better or differently in 22 months things started to coalesce to around a couple of major areas:

Personal mastery: There are activities I have engaged in that I enjoyed but not really pursued in any serious way.  Two of these are:

• Cooking - I have always enjoyed cooking, but not done it often.  When I do cook I tend to make a big production (too big) of it.  My wife went back to work part time a couple of months ago and so this is a good time for me to step up in something that will help out and I enjoy.  I'm not looking for cordon bleu, but just more fun and interesting cooking for my family and friends.
• Tuba playing - I played tuba in high school (30 years ago).  About 6 years ago I started playing again with a brass ensemble at our church.  It's been a lot of fun and I am moderately better than I was at my best in high school but would really like to be significantly better.  Practice, practice, practice.

Personal Development: These are areas in which I want to develop myself.  Call if self-improvement if you must .

• Serious reading: I am most likely to be found reading science fiction (not fantasy, more Larry Niven, Frank Herbert, Isaac Asimov, etc).  Entertaining, but mind candy.  I want to read something more substantive.
• Improve my job skills: I'll have been with IBM 25 years as of August 2012 and in management for about 16 of those.  The majority of my on-going training has been and remains on-the-job.  I have not done a good job of staying abreast of industry trends and practices, other than some reading of Harvard Business Review articles.  There is lots of opportunity here.

There are other areas that I will address in a future post.  It's important to understand that I don't plan to go after each of these areas concurrently, but build focus across the areas over time.  Some will be easier to attack than others.  And some (as I'll write about) I have already started.  The intent of this blog is to help me have some level of accountability as I pursue "Project 22".