You Are The Greatest Project You'll Ever Work On
Time to Think and Become Intentional - Deep dive #lost count
We work on someone else’s dreams, harder than we work on ours.
In my day job – the one that took over my life lately – I work as a Project Manager.
My days are full of priorities shifting faster than the English weather, deadlines creeping up, risks popping out of nowhere.
Most days, this is how I feel..
AI Generated photo, because I like writing more than scrolling through hundreds of photos.
Some people would burn out by walking a few hours in my shoes, but I like it.
I love the challenge and the human connections. I get to lead, solve problems, and contribute to something bigger, something I’m really passionate about – help other humans know more. And beneath it all, what drives me is this quiet hope: that maybe, through my actions and interactions, someone’s life becomes a little better. Even in small, unseen ways.
Your Worldview Is Running The Show
Our personal life and our work life are intertwined. And whether you realise it or not — your worldview is running the show in both.
If you believe “hard work equals worth”
you’ll overwork, chase validation, and burn yourself out trying to prove you’re enough.
If you believe “work is survival”
you’ll stay in toxic environments out of fear, not choice.
If you believe “I can’t slow down or I’ll fall behind”
rest will feel dangerous, and you’ll live in constant overdrive.
If you reflect hard enough, you would’ve seen all these beliefs at play in many times.
Watching strong performers who couldn’t acknowledge how good they were — spinning the hamster wheel, hoping that one day serenity would finally arrive.
Working with young people, barely in their twenties, already undergoing treatment for stress and anxiety. My son’s age. It shook me.
Witnessing toxic work cultures so heavy, people ended up with bald patches and burnout.
Not to mention the added toxicity that some co-workers and even leaders decide to bring to the table.
Talking about toxicity, I can’t resist the urge to mention a quote here, because it’s a great one and we all have crossed paths with some of these people.
Some people are so toxic that they should walk around carrying large house plants to replace the oxygen they use.
I’m pretty sure I heard this in the game Changer Life Podcast, by Dave Anderson.
Joke aside, this isn’t a manifesto to quit your job or slack off. Far from it.
I believe in doing excellent work. But I also believe:
If you’re bending over backwards for your job, skipping lunch, sitting in back-to-back Teams meetings, answering emails at all hours… and yet you’ve never stopped to design your own life — something is off.
If like most people you expect to stumble across the extraordinary life, while working relentlessly to help someone else achieve theirs. Keep reading to find out how to start working on the You project.
Get Ready To Kickstart The You Project
With every project, you don’t just jump straight into doing. You start by getting clear on what matters, then create a plan, execute, monitor and assess.
Why are we doing this? What’s the intended outcome? What constraints do we need to respect? What risks do we need to manage?
You gather requirements — you listen, you observe, you clarify.
You define success — what will good look like?
You prioritise — not everything matters equally.
You monitor progress — is the project drifting? Are we aligned with the purpose?
You adapt and adjust — because the plan will never be perfect.
Now imagine if we approached our life with that same level of intentionality.
The You Project works exactly the same way:
Discovery Phase: Who am I really? What do I believe? What do I value? What does extraordinary mean to me?
Planning Phase: What do I want my life to look like? What needs to change? What priorities, boundaries, and strategies will support this life?
Execution Phase: How can I align my daily choices with what I value
Monitoring Phase: Am I living in alignment? Where am I drifting? What needs to change?
Reflection Phase: What is working? What’s no longer serving me? How do I evolve?
But here’s the challenge: in most jobs, this process is defined for us. There’s structure. There are deadlines. There’s accountability.
In life? No one’s coming to run this project for you.
If you don’t pause to Kickstart the You Project, no one else will.
And if you operate on an unexamined worldview — say, one that tells you “success equals busyness” or “rest is lazy” — that worldview will drive the project of your life. You might end up building something that looks good on paper… but feels completely wrong inside.
Time to Think
You project manage everything else. Now it’s time to project manage YOU.
Think about it.
From getting the kids to school, planning what’s for dinner, booking the dog in for grooming, scheduling dentist appointments, managing the family calendar, organising holidays, sorting the car service, tackling home projects, keeping up with birthdays, planning the next big life event — you’re project managing every single day.
Some days brilliantly. Some days by the skin of your teeth. But you’re doing it.
We’re all project managers in life — whether we realise it or not.
But most of us are managing the logistics of life, while leaving ourselves out of the equation.
We’ll spend hours making sure everything runs smoothly for everyone else, but we’ve never sat down to manage the biggest, most important project of all: the life we actually want to live.
We pour energy into the to-do list, but rarely into the who am I becoming? list.
It’s no wonder so many people wake up one day and realise they’ve been running on autopilot — managing the day-to-day perfectly… but neglecting their deepest desires, values, and purpose.
One day, we will all run out of time.
The solution? Do it with grace, do it by stepping into the mindset that the most important project you will ever manage is .. YOU.
Because it is.
Just like at work or in day to day life, sit yourself down, grab the metaphorical project board, and start mapping out your version of extraordinary, the best version of yourself.
Last week we looked at how to define what an extraordinary like means to you.
Gave it a miss? Now’s your chance to go back and read.
Why? Simply because just like a project without clear deliverable will fail, so will you at trying to build a life you haven’t quite defined.
You’ve got to know what extraordinary means to you.
Define it poorly and you’ve set yourself to fail.
June Clarity Challenge
The most important project often gets left unplanned, unmanaged, undefined.
That’s where this work comes in.
That’s where the You Project begins to take shape.
And that’s exactly why we’re doing this work together.
Right now, in the June Clarity Challenge, we’re in the very first and most important phase: Discovery.
Here’s how this challenge is structured:
✅ Week 1: Worldview — What beliefs are shaping the way I see life?
✅ Week 2: Values — What truly matters to me?
✅ Week 3: Identity — Who am I really, beneath performance and expectation?
✅ Week 4: Life Design — How do I begin to align life with my truth?
Because clarity is the first step to freedom. You can’t build an extraordinary life unless you first define what extraordinary means for you and get clear on who you are becoming.
After releasing Week 1, a few of you reached out almost instantly to tell me how much the Challenge resonated and how it landed at just the right time. That truly filled my heart with joy. So, thank you!
I’d love to hear how you’re progressing, what insights are surfacing, and if there’s any way I can support you on this journey. I’m always here, and always happy to help. 💛
If you haven’t joined the challenge yet — it’s not too late. Just hit subscribe or drop me a quick comment and I’ll send you the challenge so you can start today.
Week 2 of the June Clarity Challenge drops tomorrow!
Can’t wait to dive deeper with you. 💛
Made with love, written with soul and shaped by the deep understanding that life isn’t meant to be postponed.
I’ve lived the fog, the overthinking, the trying-to-fit-in.Yet, somewhere along the way, I realised: if you don’t define your life, the world will do it for you. And it will never get it right.
So if you’re ready to stop absorbing and start designing, I’m walking this path too.
And I’ve made it my mission to help people stop postponing their lives.
When you’ll start living, I’ll be right here.
With soul, strategy and a whole lot of heart.
-Maria
P.S. If any of this spoke to you, I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments. Your voice matters here ❤️
Love it.
It's easy to live a blind life, but opening your eyes for yourself is quite hard.
Your post is definitely spot on.🙏
Wonderful 😊